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
Please accept my most humble obeisances unto your lotus feet! All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda!
Today is the most auspicious day, the most spiritual day, most divine day, most transcenden-
tal day, most holy of days, the most pure day, because today is Bhadra-māsa kṛṣṇa-pakṣa navami:
today is Śrīla Prabhupāda navami, the most auspicious appearance day of His Divine Grace Śrīla
Prabhupāda! Śrīla Prabhupāda kī jaya!
Your appearance in this material world marks the appearance of the most benevolent and most
merciful personality appearing in this material world! Today the world is recognizing you as the
greatest spiritual ambassador by honoring you with the title, viśva-guru!
Many great saints of today from East India, West India, North India, or South India, Rajendra
Mahārāja, Premānandjī Swami Mahārāja, and many others, are glorifying and appreciating you.
Śrīla Prabhupāda, the secret of your success is your love for your spiritual master and your
love for fulfilling the instructions of your spiritual masters by spreading the message of Caitanya
Mahāprabhu in foreign countries, and printing and distributing this message in book form.
Today, if we go to any place in this world, whether Australia, Kenya, Singapore, Nepal,
Uganda, Togo, Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania, Fiji, New Zealand, and so many other countries, we will
find ISKCON devotees and your books. Thus we see that you have fulfilled the prediction of Cai-
tanya Mahāprabhu:
prithvī te āche yate nagar ādi grām
sarvatre pracher haibe more nāma
You are the most powerful spiritual ambassador, a Vaikuṇṭha man, a transcendental personality
who has come into the material world where the conditioned souls are in a hopeless, helpless,
and useless situation. When one comes in touch with you, one finds oneself in a hopeful, helpful
useful situation.
You have made the process of going back home, back to Godhead, very simple. You have
mentioned the way two or three times: chant sixteen rounds every day, follow the four regulative
principles, and do not leave ISKCON. At the end of life, an airplane will come from Vaikuṇṭha
and take us back home, back to Godhead.
And in case this airplane does not come to take us to the spiritual world, you promised very
kindly and in a humble way that you will come and take us back home, back to Godhead, saying
that you have a key to the back door of Goloka Vrindavan. This shows that you have a special
connection with the Supreme Personality Godhead, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, and with Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī. So in
this way you are very kind to the conditioned souls of this world.
For another ten thousand years your ISKCON organization, books, lectures, instructions, con-
versations, and letters will be the guiding force of the people of this world.
Hare Kṛṣṇa. All the devotees under your divine shelter in ISKCON are individually trying
to please you by book distribution, book studying, book reading, preaching, temple cleaning,
fund-raising, life membership, Food-for-Life, scientific preaching, social media preaching, etc.,
etc., and collectively we try to please you by fulfilling one of your final instructions: “Your love for
me will be shown by coming together after I leave.” “Unity in diversity” and “Cooperation, coop-
eration, cooperation” are the sūtras and mantras we follow to please you.
Śrīla Prabhupāda, personally you are very kind to me because you gave me a place in ISKCON
and a wonderful spiritual master and wonderful devotees.
On this very special day, I beg at your lotus feet that you shower your mercy on this useless
soul! Hare Kṛṣṇa. Śrīla Prabhupāda, kī jaya!
Your servant,
Bhakti Karuṇāmayī Vanamālī Swami
Homages Non-GBC Sannyasis, VP2025
Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda, beloved founder-ācārya of the International Society for Krishna
Consciousness,
I, Bhakti Padma Saurabha Pracharaka Swami, humbly offer my obeisances unto your lotus
feet on this sacred occasion of Vyāsa-pūjā. As I sit in the sacred land of Vrindavan, I am filled
with gratitude and joy, for it is here that you established one of the first temples in ISKCON, fifty
years ago. Today, as we celebrate this golden jubilee, I am honored to offer my humble Vyāsa-pūjā
offering to you.
By your divine mercy, I have recently been initiated into the revered order of sannyāsa by
Vedavyāsapriya Swami Mahārāja, a distinguished disciple of yours. This sacred ashram, offered
by your devoted follower, has given me the privilege of serving your mission and executing your
divine desire to spread Kṛṣṇa consciousness globally.
As I travel around India’s various temples, teaching and sharing the message of Kṛṣṇa con-
sciousness from the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, I feel an intense need among devotees to study and expe-
rience the depths of Kṛṣṇa’s love in the pages of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. I sincerely pray to you, dear
Śrīla Prabhupāda, to make me an instrument through which Kṛṣṇa’s love can flow, inundating the
hearts of all people and subduing the anārthas in our minds.
Today, as I stood before the samādhi of my spiritual master, His Holiness Gopal Krishna
Goswami, I was reminded of the unwavering devotion of Hanumān to Lord Rāmacandra.
Similarly, His Holiness Gopal Krishna Goswami has been like a Hanumān to you, dear Śrīla
Prabhupāda, serving you with unalloyed dedication. I pray that you empower me to become
like Hanumān toward my dīkṣā-guru and my sannyāsa-guru, carrying out their instructions and
spreading Kṛṣṇa consciousness with unwavering devotion.
I am eternally grateful for this opportunity to be an instrument in your noble endeavor. As
I embark on this sacred journey, I fervently pray to you, dear Śrīla Prabhupāda, to empower
me with your divine guidance, wisdom, and strength. Kindly bless me that I may fulfill your
cherished desire of establishing temples and gurukulas, where the sacred teachings of Kṛṣṇa con-
sciousness can be imparted to humanity. May I be a worthy instrument in your hands, dear Śrīla
Prabhupāda, and may your divine mission continue to flourish under your guidance.
I offer my heartfelt prayers and obeisances unto your lotus feet, dear Śrīla Prabhupāda, on this
auspicious occasion of Vyāsa-pūjā. May your divine blessings be upon me, and may I remain for-
ever committed to your noble cause.
Śrī guru-caraṇam, namo namaha.
Your servant,
Bhakti Padma Saurabh Pracharaka Swami
Homages Non-GBC Sannyasis, VP2025
Dearest Śrīla Prabhupāda,
I offer my most humble obeisances at your lotus feet. All glories to Your Divine Grace.
In Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.24.12, Lord Brahmā tells Kardama Muni: “My dear son, since you
have completely accepted my instructions without duplicity, showing them proper respect, you
have worshiped me properly. Whatever instructions you took from me you have carried out, and
thereby you have honored me.”
You emphasize in the purport that honoring the spiritual master means executing his instruc-
tions fully and without deviation. Your fulfilling of Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Mahārāja’s
order is the cause of our mercy today and for generations to come. “Empowerment comes from
faithfully executing the order of the spiritual master. The order of the spiritual master is the active
principle in spiritual life. Anyone who disobeys the order of the spiritual master immediately
becomes useless.” (Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā 12. 8–10)
In the purport to Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.9.12 you explain that one who cooperates with the
Lord’s will, follows the guidance of bona fide brāhmaṇas and Vaiṣṇavas, and adheres to religious
principles need not fear any difficulties. Bhīṣmadeva assured Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira that he would
always be protected by brāhmaṇas, God, and religion, even in times of tribulation. Similarly, by
strictly following your instructions, we remain protected.
Your Divine Grace set the example, as you stated in a January 19, 1974 letter to His Holiness
Hridayananda Goswami: “So far as my Guru Mahārāja is concerned, I have never at any time
deviated from His order. I was only concerned with carrying out His order to the best of my abil-
ity, even in the face of so many difficulties.”
You recalled your Guru Mahārāja’s final instruction: “Whatever you have learned, try to
expand it – preach in English.” (Māyāpur, March 1974) In your Vyāsa-pūjā address in 1969, you
declared: “Personally, I have no credit for this. But I have full faith in my Guru Mahārāja. I
simply tried to execute his order without deviation, and that is my only qualification. And he has
given me all success.” (Vyāsa-pūjā address, Hamburg, September 5, 1969)
On Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura’s appearance day in 1961, in Vrindavan, you
lamented:
Even now, my Godbrothers, you return here on the order of our master and together
engage in this pūjā. But simply a festival of flowers and fruits does not constitute wor-
ship. The one who serves the message of the guru really worships him.
Oh, shame! My dear brothers, aren’t you embarrassed? In the manner of businessmen,
you increase your disciples. Our master said to preach! Let the neophytes remain inside
the temples and simply ring the bells …
But just take a good look at the terrible situation that has arisen. Everyone has become a
sense enjoyer and has given up preaching …
From the seas, across the earth, penetrate the universal shell; come together and preach
this Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
Then our master’s service will be in proper order. Make your promise today. Give up all
your politics and diplomacy. (quoted in Śrīla Prabhupāda-līlāmṛta, vol. 1, p. 249)
ISKCON remains dedicated to worldwide missionary activities under its collective leadership, yet
faces many challenges in continuing your Guru Mahārāja’s mission. Just as Brahmā prayed for
protection and empowerment (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.9.22–27), today I pray to Your Divine Grace.
I pray to engage in your service and that of your dedicated followers, and that we may not be
affected by the material energy nor misled by false prestige as leaders and give up all unnecessary
politics and diplomacy. May we never deviate from your instructions. ISKCON is your instru-
ment in delivering Kṛṣṇa consciousness to the world.
When my spiritual master, His Holiness Bhakti Cāru Swami Mahārāja, asked me at Bhakti-
vedanta Manor to address his aspiring disciples, I hesitated. A disciple does not usually speak in
front of his guru, but as he insisted, I asked for his blessings. He pointed to your mūrti and said:
“This is where all blessings come from.”
On this auspicious day of your appearance, I pray that we may never forget this truth and eter-
nally take shelter at your lotus feet.
Your servant,
Bhakti Prabhāva Swami
Homages Non-GBC Sannyasis, VP2026
Dearest Śrīla Prabhupāda,
Please accept my most humble obeisances at your lotus feet on this most auspicious day of your divine appearance.
During the last months of your presence in this world, Your Divine Grace shared with my spiritual master, His Holiness Bhakti Chāru Mahārāja, that ISKCON exists in the spiritual sky and that all sincere members of ISKCON will go back to that divine ISKCON when their allotted time in the material world is finished. You gave us a Kṛṣṇa conscious society, Kṛṣṇa conscious literature, association with Kṛṣṇa conscious personalities, and everything necessary for elevating the most fallen souls to the highest spiritual platform. Just as the holy name of the Lord is both a means and an end, so ISKCON is also a means and an end.
After fifty years or more of following the process of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, many of your sincere and dedicated followers have become pure-hearted. This does not mean that all these pure souls are on the same level. Even among pure devotees there are gradations of less and more advanced, as many light bulbs give light, but some give stronger light than others. Even if some ISKCON spiritual masters are not yet on the level of pure devotion, their disciples can advance swiftly toward the goal of life by the complete arrangements Your Divine Grace made in the form of ISKCON. You wrote in your purport to Upadeśāmṛta (5): “A neophyte Vaiṣṇava or a Vaiṣṇava situated on the intermediate platform can also accept disciples, but such disciples must be on the same platform, and it should be understood that they cannot advance very well toward the ultimate goal of life under his insufficient guidance.” However, you gave us ISKCON, a multiguru institution, in which disciples have the opportunity to receive proper training from many spiritually advanced personalities. Provided disciples, in harmony with their relationship with their own ISKCON guru, identify themselves as a śikṣā disciple of Your Divine Grace and simultaneously take shelter of other spiritual masters within ISKCON, they are bound to make advancement and approach the ultimate goal, even if their own dīkṣā-guru is not on the highest platform of devotion.
This divine arrangement enables all ISKCON members to easily practice Kṛṣṇa consciousness in this degraded Kali-yuga. No one has ever made such complete arrangements for spiritual elevation. This makes you the most magnanimous representative of the most magnanimous appearance of Lord Kṛṣṇa as Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. We can never pay you back for this great gift. However, as core members of our society, it is our duty to use all these assets in your preaching mission, not only for attracting new people but also for ensuring the steady advancement of everyone already serving in ISKCON.
After practicing vaidhi-sādhana-bhakti for more than thirty-four years, I realize, as the end of the body comes nearer, the urgency to attain the mercy of Lord Caitanya. Our hope is that by pushing forward your mission we will get, somehow or other, your mercy, which is followed by the mercy of Lord Caitanya. To give others the opportunity to obtain that same mercy, there is a need not only to preach to make new devotees but also, as you told us, to “boil the milk.” This means that our preaching must have a clear purpose: to turn congregational members into committed devotees and prepare them for initiation, and to increase the commitment of the initiated devotees, turning them into core members dedicated to the spreading of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. As such, they will become your instruments in the mission and recipients of your mercy.
Your Divine Grace used the metaphor of “boiling the milk” in letters to Rūpānuga (Honolulu, 9 May 1972) and Haṁsadūta (Los Angeles, 22 June 1972):
To Rūpānuga you wrote: “Now I want that we shall concentrate on making our devotees Kṛṣṇa conscious and ourselves becoming Kṛṣṇa conscious and not be so much concerned with expanding ourselves widely but without any spiritual content. Just like boiling the milk, it becomes thicker and sweeter. Now do like that, boil the milk.”
And to Haṁsadūta you wrote: “Now we have got so many students and so many temples, but I am fearful that if we expand too much in this way we shall become weakened and gradually the whole thing will become lost. Just like milk. We may thin it more and more with water … but in the end it will cease to be milk. Better to boil the milk very vigorously and make it thick and sweet.”
You explained that “boiling the milk” practically means that we should concentrate on training our devotees very thoroughly in the knowledge of Kṛṣṇa consciousness from our books, tapes, through discussions, and in so many ways.
In the 1960s and 1970s Your Divine Grace established a morning program surcharged with the five most potent items of devotional service. At that time most devotees lived in the temples. Today, ISKCON consists of all congregational members and only a minority of them attend the morning programs either in person or online. The morning program you established is essential for devotees to “boil the milk” and make spiritual advancement. Times have changed, and to prevent the milk becoming increasingly thinned with water, we require innovative systems based on the principles of your teachings to keep members regularly involved in activities that help them to make spiritual progress.
For many years I have been serving on a committee of the ISKCON Sannyāsa Ministry that is concerned with training sannyāsa candidates in organizing and developing such activities. These activities are meant to engage the congregational members by forming groups of like-minded devotees discussing your books on a regular basis and sharing their realizations of the spiritual techniques. The aim of these activities is to cultivate friendship, support one another in their sādhana, engage in service, and participate in your mission. In cooperation with temple authorities, sannyāsa candidates have started to engage small groups of devotees in many parts of the world. To be successful in this endeavor I pray to Your Divine Grace that you will bless us with a genuine understanding of your desire of how to make this endeavor successful and boil the milk. Our success in life depends on pleasing Your Divine Grace, who is the foremost representative of the previous ācāryas and very dear to Lord Kṛṣṇa.
Praying for your blessings, your insignificant servant eternally,
Bhakti Prabhāva 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
Please accept my most humble obeisances in the dust of your divine lotus feet. Hare Kṛṣṇa!
In 1966, my father somehow found his way to you at 26 Second Avenue. He wasn’t knowingly
searching for Kṛṣṇa, but rather had a personal agenda related to his son, who had “lost it” (gone
crazy) due to a neurosis compounded by the effects of LSD. On that occasion, you expressed your
underlying and profound compassion in a simple acknowledgment: “There is something wrong
with that boy.” You then immediately reassured your visitor: “But we can fix him up!”
(This confident statement calls to mind the title of Satsvarūpa dāsa Goswami’s third volume of
his Śrīla Prabhupāda-līlāmṛta: Only He Could Lead Them.)
So, let’s count how many years have passed up to the present? All right, 2025 minus 1966
equals 59 years since those wild beatnik/hippie days in downtown NYC! (From the bodily per-
spective, I was twenty years old and am now seventy-eight.)
Five years later, in 1971, by the intercession of the devotees, you permitted me one more per-
sonal darshan. This took place in another sacred enclave, namely the second ISKCON temple, in
Boston, Massachusetts, at 38 North Beacon Street. The bottom line of that exchange, or the take-
away from it, was your concluding words: “I only ask one thing of you – simply try to understand
Kṛṣṇa!”
Another five years later, in April 1976, I was formally initiated to become your disciple. Up to
the present I have been chanting at least the minimum sixteen rounds daily and have not broken
any of the four regulative principles. But it was only in 2013 that I felt steady and strong enough
to accept the order of sannyāsa.
Of course, my humble story repeats in thousands of ways, with many variations, for each one
of your fortunate disciples. After your departure, so many others would yet become initiated by
your disciples, and thus your ISKCON movement continues to spread throughout the world. This
was foreseen by the previous ācāryas, notably Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura.
Śrīla Prabhupāda, while I still mentally struggle with the challenges of the awful impressions
from my youth and, now, with the inevitable miseries associated with old age, I am thankfully
aware of my extraordinarily good fortune to have met you and to find myself in the process of sur-
rendering unto your lotus feet – and thereby to the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality
of Godhead, also known as Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu.
All glories to you, Śrīla Prabhupāda, on this auspicious celebration of your divine appearance
on this earth.
Your yet aspiring servant,
Bhakti Prabhupāda-vrata Dāmodara Swami
(now based at New Raman Reti, Alachua, Florida, USA)
Homages Non-GBC Sannyasis, VP2025
Respected Śrīla Prabhupāda,
Please accept my most humble obeisances at your divine lotus feet. All glories to Your Divine
Grace.
You are the senāpati-bhakta – the chosen commander of Mahāprabhu’s saṅkīrtana army – who
fulfilled the impossible mission of spreading Kṛṣṇa consciousness beyond India. You crossed
oceans, faced countless hardships, and awakened the sleeping souls of the Western world. What
no one could imagine, you made a reality by your firm faith in the holy name, in the instructions
of your spiritual master, and your deep compassion for the fallen conditioned souls.
You gave us your books – not ordinary books, but eternal scriptures meant to guide humanity
for the next ten thousand years. They are the lawbooks for the world, full of spiritual wisdom,
hope, and direction. Just by reading your books, lives are transformed. Nations can change by
your books.
Yet despite doing so much you never took credit. You always said, “I am simply a servant of my
Guru Mahārāja.” You gave all glories to your spiritual master and the paramparā. This humility is
your greatness. This humility of yours is the source of inspiration for many, including myself.
You had a grand vision for Śrī Māyāpur – the World Headquarters of the Kṛṣṇa consciousness
movement. You wanted it to be a spiritual United Nations, where people from all over the world
could come and understand who they really are and what the purpose of life is. Your vision for
Māyāpur is unfolding and becoming a reality.
You also warned us about internal conflicts. You said that once the movement grows, we must
be careful not to lose our purity. “Boil the milk,” you said, meaning, deepen the quality of devo-
tees, not just increase our quantity. You desired cooperation, not unhealthy competition. You
wanted all of us to work together under the guidance of the GBC body, with unity and trust.
ISKCON must remain united under one umbrella or your mission will suffer.
Śrīla Prabhupāda, I am praying at your lotus feet, please give me your mercy so that I can
always remain a loyal servant to you and your ISKCON. Please empower me to help spread the
message of Lord Caitanya across the world, as you taught us. Please forgive all my offenses, done
knowingly or unknowingly.
I am forever your unworthy but hopeful servant,
Bhakti Prachar Parivrajak Swami
Page 3 of 16«12345...10...»Last »
