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
When Lord Caitanya first met Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī and Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī, they offered the
Lord the following prayers (Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya 1.204–206):
We are very depressed at being unfit candidates for Your mercy. Yet since we have
heard of Your transcendental qualities, we are very much attracted to You.
Indeed, we are like a dwarf who wants to capture the moon. Although we are com-
pletely unfit, a desire to receive Your mercy is awakening within our minds.
By serving You constantly, one is freed from all material desires and is completely
pacified. When shall I engage as Your permanent eternal servant and always feel joyful
to have such a fitting master?
At the time, Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī and Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī were known as Dabira Khāsa and
Sākara Mallika. Lord Caitanya changed their names, and you explain in the purport that this was
their initiation. You write that with the change of name, with initiation, one begins a new life.
Although I am so unqualified and insignificant, you have given this greatest of gifts to me as
well. You have given me a new and wonderful life. You expressed this transformation in your 1936
Vyāsa-pūjā offering to your own spiritual master:
Message of Service
Thou hast brought.
A healthful life
As Caitanya wrought.
Unknown to all
It’s full of brace.
That’s your gift
Your Divine Grace.
By your grace, I wake up and look at the new day before me as a fresh adventure. At the end of
the day, I go to sleep deeply grateful for the opportunities you have given me to serve.
How can I ever repay you? The answer is: “Only by increasing my gratitude every day for the
sublime life you have given me.”
May I always remain in your service,
Badrinarayan Swami
Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda,
Please accept my humble obeisances in the dust of your lotus feet.
Śrīla Prabhupāda, with each year that passes it becomes more and more obvious how depen-
dent we are on your mercy, your teachings, and your example.
Thank you for continuing to guide us and nurture us. Thank you for teaching us via thousands
of pages of instructions in your books. Thank you for appearing in your mūrti form in temples
worldwide, where you continue to accept our obeisances and prayers. Thank you for guiding us
via hundreds of recorded lectures, in which you at once plead, coach, embrace, and call out to
each of us to come closer to you and to Lord Kṛṣṇa. Thank you for instructing us to call out the
Lord’s name with feeling, to surrender to the Supreme Beloved, to give up our foolish attempts at
capturing happiness through our senses, and to stop blindly following our rebellious materialistic
minds.
You are so kind to be ever present for us, Śrīla Prabhupāda – year after year after year. You are
our constant friend, guru, and example amidst the ocean of material distress.
Śrīla Prabhupāda, as this Age of Quarrel gains momentum, we see that all over the world
polarization and hatred between peoples and tribes and nations is increasing. We are trying to
realize and share your message, the message of our ācāryas, that the world belongs to Kṛṣṇa
(īśāvāsyam idam sarvam) and that peace will only come through living cooperatively as children of
God. But it is hard. People are so overcome by bitterness and spite.
By your grace only, Śrīla Prabhupāda, can we have the opportunity to overcome that darkness.
By your grace only, Śrīla Prabhupāda, can we become beacons of light – as a society of Vaiṣṇavas,
as individual devotees, as citizens, mothers, fathers, neighbors, employers, employees, and as
friends and colleagues.
But sadly, the world around us impels us to hurt ourselves and others. The world impels us to
cheat. The world impels us to be full of hate and anger and jealously and envy. It is practically
demanding that we do so. It is tempting us to do so. It is prodding us to do so. But you have
given us the secret to rising beyond all that, the Lord’s holy name:
Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare
Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rama Rāma Hare Hare
Śrīla Prabhupāda, there are so many religious and spiritual people in this world who do not
practice what they preach. It is so common that young people have given up on elders and institu-
tions. They hanker for authenticity. They find instead hypocrisy.
Śrīla Prabhupāda, you were and are the perfect manifestation of authenticity. This is one of
your greatest qualities – one that attracted thousands and today attracts millions to take shelter of
you. If we want to be counted as among your followers, if we want to preach and teach and serve
you and follow you, we too need to become authentic. Not shallow, and not proud – we need to
become humble Vaiṣṇavas, trying our utmost to respect all others, to be kind to all others, and to
be servants of all others.
This year, as part of the ISKCON Leadership seminar, “Being Guru in ISKCON,” the GBC
Guru Services Committee members felt obliged to add to the course (which is mandatory for
devotees taking up the service of initiating guru) several hours of instruction about “spiritual
abuse.”
Why did we do that? How can a spiritual organization have abuse? And why would ISKCON
need to teach about it, warn against it, guard against it? Some may argue that our needing to do
so proves that ISKCON has deviated from your path of purity.
But in reality, the opposite is true. The fact that we “take on” spiritual abuse openly, that we
discuss it, teach about it, and try to minimize it – if not eliminate it – is proof of how your pure
example continues to motivate us.
This is the dilemma that faces a sincere soul on the path of bhakti. We are by nature pure and
eternal servants of God. Endeavoring again to serve Him, we take on greater and greater respon-
sibilities to share His message. But every day, every moment, and at every turn we remain vulner-
able to forgetfulness and to trying again to exploit others and the world around us.
Śrīla Prabhupāda, it is because of your purity, and the maturing of our faith in that purity, that
we can teach about spiritual abuse – how to avoid it and how to overcome it, and, how we must
always be on guard so that our controlling and exploitative tendencies may not overwhelm us,
even as we try our best to love and serve the Lord.
Śrīla Prabhupāda, you give us the strength to resist these tendencies and the honesty to pray
for protection against such tendencies. You have taught us that the soul is originally pure; that
the soul is meant to love God; and that each one of your followers must enthusiastically carry that
message forward. But we must ever be on guard and never forget that each of us is very small.
And māyā, illusion, is very strong.
Armed with that knowledge and with the awareness of our need for protection at every
moment, we pray that all devotees, starting with ourselves and including even the topmost leaders,
may be empowered with a deep understanding of our own limitations. We must have the courage
to say to ourselves and to others, “Yes, I can be a messenger on behalf of Śrīla Prabhupāda and
Lord Kṛṣṇa. But yes, I can also deviate and harm others if I’m not careful. I must be trained. I
must be held accountable. I must hear every day from our founder-ācārya, from my gurus, my
elders, and my peers to help me remember that I am but a humble servant.”
Most importantly, I – we – must remember that we are completely dependent upon the mercy
of the Lord and our founder-ācārya. It is your example, Śrīla Prabhupāda, your teaching, your
grace and your authenticity that keep us safe.
Śrīla Prabhupāda, thank you for being present in our lives, in your books, in your lectures, in
your mūrtis, and in your society, and for reminding us again and again to never mistreat others
or misuse our power, our knowledge, our influence, or our status. We are always but insignificant
servants of you and Lord Kṛṣṇa. Please keep us eternally in the shelter of your lotus feet.
Your servant,
Anuttama Dāsa
Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda,
Please accept my humble obeisances. Allow me to express my gratitude and appreciation on
this blessed day of your appearance!
śrī-guru-caraṇa-padma, kevala-bhakati-sadma
How can one attain kevala-bhakti, pure, unalloyed devotion? Only devotion to the lotus feet of the
spiritual master can detach us from the material concept of happiness and show us the way to a
pure abode where love and endless happiness can quench our thirst.
At an advanced age, when you traveled to Western countries, you set an example of faithfulness
to the instructions of your spiritual master and the guru-paramparā.
By keeping the spiritual master’s instructions in your heart as your life and soul, you passed
through many trials and overcame many difficulties, spreading the glories of devotional service.
By your example and enthusiasm, you awakened the seed of devotion in the people whom
Kṛṣṇa sent you. Defying all material values, you steadfastly resisted the onslaught of material
nature, taking shelter of the holy name and the scriptures.
What would we be doing now if you hadn’t left us these amazing books that are full of spiritual
power? Your voice and your instructions give us shelter and a taste for pure devotional service.
Before you left this world, you many times expressed concern about the future of ISKCON.
How would your students be able to carry your spirit and, by cooperating with one another,
strengthen the international movement? You said “intelligence and organization,” “intelligence
and organization”…
You established the GBC and personally trained its first members. You taught them how to
manage an organization – how to be leaders. Despite the fact that you were absorbed in writing
your books, you checked bank accounts, settled conflicts between devotees, and monitored the
development of ISKCON’s reputation.
This year, on Rāma-navamī, we celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the Deities’ installation
in Vrindavan, at the Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma temple. Your disciples shared their memories of those times.
This is your victory!
During that Deity installation, even during your lifetime your mūrti was installed. Someone
asked you, “Swamiji, people will touch your feet and get rid of their sins.” With a heart full of love
and compassion, you answered, “This is my mission.” Śrīla Prabhupāda, you are so great!
Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda, it is a real refuge for me to participate in the development and main-
tenance of ISKCON. Material nature puts so many obstacles and challenges in the way, but your
example always inspires confidence and determination in my heart.
Please allow me to continue my efforts to develop your mission, which I have received from the
entire guru-paramparā and Lord Caitanya Himself! Let me be useful in this service.
The servant of your servants,
Acyutātmā Dāsa
Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda,
Please accept my most humble obeisances in the dust of your divine lotus feet. Let me try offer-
ing you a few words of worthy glorification.
When I think about what you’ve done for the mission of Lord Caitanya, it makes me very
grave and humble. Your glories will not disappear into the shadows over the coming centuries.
Rather, your glories will shine brighter and brighter in the upcoming ages, like a rising sun shines
brighter and brighter. The world will see the true value and sweetness of Kṛṣṇa consciousness that
you brought into it.
Kṛṣṇa consciousness is always attractive to the soul – no doubt about it. Examining your
mission and legacy, I understand that your ideas can catch the attention of the world. You have
genius ideas that can transform the world and make it more susceptible to take to Kṛṣṇa con-
sciousness. No external obstacles can stand in the way of the tide of Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
The only question that rises in my mind in this regard is about my own qualification. I under-
stand that to spread your mission you need some instruments to work through. As your preachers,
we have to be up to the mark that your purity demands. You said to your followers that to be a
preacher, a guru, is an easy thing: one need only repeat what one has heard from you.
“I am this, I am that. How can I become guru?” Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, “No, it is
very easy thing.” Yāre dekha, tāre kaha ‘kṛṣṇa’-upadeśa, āmāra ājñāya guru haṅā tāra’ ei
deśa.… You become guru simply by advising everyone the instruction which Kṛṣṇa has
given. That’s all. You become guru. It is not at all difficult thing. But if you want to
cheat others that you are Bhagavān, you are this and that, you are yogi, you are very
powerful, and I am God, then you will cheat, because you are neither God; you are
less than a dog. You are falsely claiming that you are God. That is not your position.
You are servant of God – that is your position. That is real jñāna. (Lecture, Śrīmad-
Bhāgavatam 3.25.43, Bombay, December 11, 1974)
On the one hand it is very easy to become your instrument – it is the easiest thing to do. On the
other hand it is most difficult for a conditioned soul used to working under the spell of ahaṅkāra.
Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda, on this auspicious day of your appearance, I pray at your lotus feet for
the strength and ability to always stay chaste to your instructions and standard of purity. Let me
become a suitable tool and channel of yours and your followers’ mercy.
Your unworthy servant,
Acyuta Priya Dāsa
Embracing Śrīla Prabhupāda’s Legacy: A Guiding Light through Contemporary Challenges
As we gather to commemorate the auspicious occasion of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s Vyāsa-pūjā, we are
afforded the opportunity not only to offer our gratitude and reverence but also to collectively
immerse ourselves in the timeless wisdom Śrīla Prabhupāda bestowed upon us. The Vyāsa-pūjā
book serves as more than a collection of homages; it is a testament to the enduring potency of
Śrīla Prabhupāda’s teachings and a vital resource for the International Society for Kṛṣṇa Con-
sciousness as it navigates the complexities of the modern world.
In his purport to text 4 of The Nectar of Instruction, we read, “The International Society for
Krishna Consciousness has been established to facilitate these six kinds of loving exchanges
between devotees.” One of the loving exchanges is “revealing one’s mind in confidence.” The
annual Vyāsa-pūjā book encourages and facilitates such a confidential extraction of devotees’ feel-
ings for Śrīla Prabhupāda, and for other devotees to absorb themselves in them. So all who com-
posed offerings, and all who will read them, are participants in the most delightful form of guhyam
ākhyāti pṛcchati – confidential revelation and inquiry specifically for our cherished founder-ācārya.
ISKCON, as a dynamic spiritual movement, encounters various challenges in its mission –
among them, ensuring the continuity and purity of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s instructions, fostering
unity and a strong sense of community amid a diverse global following, and adapting its presenta-
tion in order to resonate better with contemporary society – all while upholding its foundational
principles. As we face these challenges, Śrīla Prabhupāda’s Vyāsa-pūjā book serves as a powerful
tool for revitalization and direction.
For example, in reaffirming foundational principles and fostering unity, you’ll see that the
offerings in the Vyāsa-pūjā book invariably draw us back to core tenets of Kṛṣṇa consciousness
as Śrīla Prabhupāda gave them to us; and in articulating their realizations and gratitude, devo-
tees, from senior disciples to later generations, consistently speak of the critical importance of
his teachings in their service and lives. This shared focus is unifying, nurturing a cohesive under-
standing of our philosophy and how to apply it. The Vyāsa-pūjā book is thereby a vibrant form of
saṅga for Prabhupādānugas.
Reading the heartfelt glorifications and expressions of indebtedness to Śrīla Prabhupāda
is one of the best ways to strengthen our faith in His Divine Grace, and stronger faith in Śrīla
Prabhupāda fortifies our collective faith in ISKCON and helps us serve his Kṛṣṇa consciousness
movement with greater resolve. When facing internal or external obstacles, reading these offerings
can remind us of our founder-ācārya’s own unwavering devotional resolve, conviction, and spiri-
tual strength. The honoring of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s dedication to his spiritual master and determi-
nation to serve the mission is a theme in many of the offerings you’ll find in this volume.
The Vyāsa-pūjā book also serves as a vital bridge that connects senior devotees, a number of
whom had Śrīla Prabhupāda’s personal association, with all the devotees who have come after
them. The torch of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s legacy is being passed down, and in these offerings,
we receive it along with an emphasis on the mood, mission, and standards he established for
ISKCON. In this way the experience and wisdom of our seniors is passed down to all of us who
wish to carry his movement forward.
As we immerse ourselves in these offerings, let’s do it with a prayerful heart. Let’s honor Śrīla
Prabhupāda and imbibe the spirit and letter of his teachings. By collectively focusing on his
instructions and the profound impact he continues to have on our lives, we become empowered
to face challenges with clarity, loyalty, and unwavering devotion. May this book be a beacon shin-
ing on our collective service to His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda and his
sacred mission.
Before closing, we’d like to thank the devotees who helped put this year’s book together:
Bhaktivaibhava Swami chose the many beautiful photos of Śrīla Prabhupāda inside the book. Sītā
Ṭhākuraṇī Devī Dāsī and her husband, Don Stammers, from the United Kingdom, and Vasudāmā
Dāsa, from Australia, did the proofreading. Kṣameśvarī Rādhā Devī Dāsī, from Alachua, helped
edit the offerings. Caitanya Devī Dāsī, from Croatia, chose the quotes for the “Our Obeisances to
You for Your Transcendental Instructions” section in the back of the book.
Please note that again this year, the Vyāsa-pūjā book is available in PDF format so you can
download and share it with members of your community. It will also be online at vyasapuja.com.
Would you like to offer some service with Śrīla Prabhupāda’s Vyāsa-pūjā book? Write to us at
vphomages@iskcon.net and let’s connect. Thank you.
Your servants on the Vyāsa-pūjā book team,
Satyamedhā Gaurāṅga Dāsa
Ānanda Tīrtha Dāsa
Kaiśorī Devī Dāsī
Praghoṣa Dāsa
Today we celebrate Vyāsa-pūjā, literally the worship of Śrīla Vyāsadeva, the great sage who com-
piled the Vedas. We worship our spiritual master, Śrīla Prabhupāda, as the divine representative
of Vyāsadeva because from him we have received the Vedic knowledge, by which we can attain
eternal life. This liberating wisdom emanates from the Lord himself.
sarvasya cāhaṁ hṛdi sanniviṣṭo
mattaḥ smṛtir jñānam apohanaṁ ca
vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyo
vedānta-kṛd veda-vid eva cāham
“I am seated in everyone’s heart, and from Me come remembrance, knowledge, and forgetfulness.
By all the Vedas I am to be known. Indeed, I am the compiler of Vedānta, and I am the knower of
the Vedas.” (Bhagavad-gītā 15.15)
The Lord personally imparts the Vedic knowledge to Lord Brahmā, who initiates our
sampradāya.
yavan aham yatha-bhavo
yad-rupa-guna-karmakaḥ
tathaiva tattva-vijṣanam
astu te mad-anugrahat
“All of Me, namely My actual eternal form and My transcendental existence, color, qualities and
activities – let all be awakened within you by factual realization, out of My causeless mercy.”
(Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 2.9.32)
Brahmā teaches that same Vedic knowledge to his son Nārada, who in turn instructs his dis-
ciple Vyāsadeva, from whom it descends in an unbroken line or paramparā, eventually reaching
Śrīla Prabhupāda, to whom we offer our most profound adulation.
Our debt to Śrīla Prabhupāda and all the previous spiritual masters is incalculable. While
instructing Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī, Lord Caitanya said,
kṛṣṇa bhuli’ sei jīva anādi-bahirmukha
ataeva māyā tāre deya saṁsāra-duḥkha
“Forgetting Kṛṣṇa, the living entity has been attracted by the external feature from time immemo-
rial. Therefore, the illusory energy [māyā] gives him all kinds of misery in his material existence.”
(Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā 20.117)
We have been languishing in material existence, enduring “all kinds of misery since time imme-
morial,” which means nobody can calculate how long we have been entrapped. We can perhaps
get some idea when we consider the current epoch. We learn from the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam that the
jīvas are injected into the creation through the Lord’s glance at the beginning of Brahmā’s life:
kāla-vṛttyā tu māyāyāṁ
guṇa-mayyām adhokṣajaḥ
puruṣeṇātma-bhūtena
vīryam ādhatta vīryavān
“The Supreme Living Being in His feature as the transcendental puruṣa incarnation, who is the
Lord’s plenary expansion, impregnates the material nature of three modes, and thus by the influ-
ence of eternal time the living entities appear.” (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.5.26)
At the end of each of Brahmā’s days, when he sleeps and there is an annihilation, those souls
who have not been liberated enter Lord Viṣṇu’s body until the following creation in the next day
of Brahmā. Each of those days represents 1,000 cycles of the four yugas, equivalent to approxi-
mately four billion Earth years, with the ensuing nights being the same length. According to the
ācāryas, Brahmā has lived approximately half of his life, or around fifty of his years, so it appears
we have been dwelling in this universe for over 150 trillion years. However, it is possible we came
from another universe before that, where we would have remained for its entire duration. And it is
not impossible that we lived through other creations before that. Time itself commences with the
commencement of each universe, so we cannot even estimate how long we have been in material
existence.
“All kinds of misery” means every type of material body, from germs to gods. In our determined
quest to find happiness separate from Kṛṣṇa, we have tried everything possible, repeatedly. Thus,
we have suffered every imaginable agony, taking birth and dying countless times, repeatedly
plunging into hell, and experiencing an untold number of catastrophes as we endured the cosmic
devastations at the end of each day of Brahmā and even during those days. Sometimes, growing
tired of the futile attempt to satisfy our senses, we renounced everything and practiced austerity
in the hope of achieving liberation. In this way, we might have achieved temporary respite from
the furious storm of suffering, only to again return to it when we became jaded with the state of
inertia.
The enormity of our stubborn resistance to Kṛṣṇa’s will is indeed staggering. For endless eons
we have resolutely refused to accept His supreme position and our subordination as His servants,
endeavoring to act as would-be lords ourselves. This has presented us with an insurmountable
problem, as Kṛṣṇa states in the Bhagavad-gītā:
daivī hy eṣā guṇa-mayī
mama māyā duratyayā
mām eva ye prapadyante
māyām etāṁ taranti te
“This divine energy of Mine, consisting of the three modes of material nature, is difficult to over-
come. But those who have surrendered unto Me can easily cross beyond it.” (Bhagavad-gītā 7.14)
Until we surrender to Kṛṣṇa, we must remain in the inescapable fortress of material existence.
We cannot extract ourselves by any independent effort. We need the Lord’s intervention. Lord
Caitanya told Sanātana Gosvāmī:
māyā-mugdha jīvera nāhi svataḥ kṛṣṇa-jñāna
jīvere kṛpāya kailā kṛṣṇa veda-purāna
“The conditioned soul cannot revive his Kṛṣṇa consciousness by his own effort. But out of cause-
less mercy, Lord Kṛṣṇa compiled the Vedic literature and its supplements, the Purāṇas.” (Caitanya-
caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā 20.122)
In his purport to this verse, Śrīla Prabhupāda describes our awkward situation of entrapment
in material consciousness, mistakenly thinking ourselves part of the material world and thereby
undergoing the concomitant vicissitudes. We become the slaves of lust, greed, anger, and envy,
and when the inevitable results of that become too much to bear, we serve “mental speculation.”
In other words, we try to devise a way to end our misery while remaining averse to the real
solution: surrendering to Kṛṣṇa.
Thankfully, the Lord takes pity on us, as Śrīla Prabhupāda goes on to say: “Out of His cause-
less mercy and compassion, Kṛṣṇa has compiled various Vedic literatures in His incarnation
as Vyāsadeva. Vyāsadeva is a śaktyāveśa-avatāra of Lord Kṛṣṇa. He has very kindly presented
these literatures to awaken the conditioned soul to his senses.” (Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā
20.122, purport)
As the means to end our miserable state will never occur to us, Kṛṣṇa comes personally to spell
it out in the Vedic literature. However, we still require the Lord’s mercy to understand the Vedas.
As Lord Brahmā says in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam:
athāpi te deva padāmbuja-dvaya-
prasāda-leśānugṛhīta eva hi
jānāti tattvaṁ bhagavan-mahimno
na cānya eko ’pi ciraṁ vicinvan
“My Lord, if one is favored by even a slight trace of the mercy of Your lotus feet, he can under-
stand the greatness of Your personality. But those who speculate to understand the Supreme
Personality of Godhead are unable to know You, even though they continue to study the Vedas for
many years.” (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.14.29)
That mercy comes to us through Vyāsadeva’s authorized representative, the spiritual master,
whose guidance is essential. Only by the guru’s grace can we comprehend Vedic truths. As the
Upaniṣads say:
yasya deve parā bhaktir
yathā deve tathā gurau
tasyaite kathitā hy arthāḥ
prakāśante mahātmanaḥ
“Only unto those great souls who have implicit faith in both the Lord and the spiritual master are
all the imports of Vedic knowledge automatically revealed.” (Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad 6.23)
The Vedas themselves confirm this point. Paraphrasing the words of the personified Vedas from
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.87.33 in his Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead (chapter 87), Śrīla
Prabhupāda writes: “The personified Vedas continued: ‘Dear Lord, although great mystic yogīs
may have full control over the elephant of the mind and the hurricane of the senses, unless they
take shelter of a bona fide spiritual master, they fall victim to the material influence and are never
successful in their attempts at self-realization. Such unguided persons are compared to merchants
going to sea on a ship without a captain. By one’s personal attempts, therefore, one cannot get
free from the clutches of material nature. One has to accept a bona fide spiritual master and work
according to his direction. Then it is possible to cross over the nescience of material conditions.”
We thus owe everything to Śrīla Prabhupāda, the authorized representative of Vyāsadeva.
Without his grace, we would be rotting in this material world, with no idea how to save ourselves –
especially as we now find ourselves immersed in the darkness of Kali-yuga, where ignorance
abounds. As the sages of Naimiṣāraṇya said to Sūta Gosvāmī:
tvaṁ naḥ sandarśito dhātrā
dustaraṁ nistitīrṣatām
kaliṁ sattva-haraṁ puṁsāṁ
karṇa-dhāra ivārṇavam
“We think that we have met Your Goodness by the will of providence, just so that we may accept
you as captain of the ship for those who desire to cross the difficult ocean of Kali, which deterio-
rates all the good qualities of a human being.” (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.1.22)
The spiritual master is the captain of the ship that sails us to freedom, rescuing us from a shore-
less sea of suffering in which we have floundered for longer than we can even begin to imagine.
Our debt to him and all his forbears is inestimable and can never be repaid. We therefore worship
his lotus feet with utmost respect on the auspicious occasion of Vyāsa-pūjā.
– Krishna Dharma Dāsa
