Homages Non-GBC Sannyasis, VP2026
Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda,
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 accept my obeisances. All glories to Your Divine Grace!
Your glories, of course, are unlimited, Śrīla Prabhupāda. Yet for this homage I’ll comment briefly on only one outstanding feature of your transcendentally genius vision – a feature that may be unknown to many of your followers.
Śrutakīrti Dāsa told me that you mentioned to him that you were successful because you made “the adjustment” to allow women to live in the temples. What a bold and revolutionary departure from the culture from which you came! And what a startling assertion that this adjustment was integral to your success!
Though certainly you respected Vedic culture and tradition, and though you were keen on establishing varṇāśrama-dharma, you were obviously much more concerned with whatever was most effective for spreading Kṛṣṇa consciousness, the prime necessity for every human being.
In your purport to Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya 23.105, you write, “What is possible in one country may not be possible in another. The ācārya’s duty is to accept the essence of devotional service.” That, indeed, is the duty you accepted, Śrīla Prabhupāda – according to time, place, and circumstance – in American, European, Australian, and other societies, where men and women tend to mix freely.
Besides allowing women to live in the temples, you engaged them in the same activities in which you engaged the men – especially in preaching. Sometimes you insisted on their lecturing and leading kirtans, even in the presence of sannyāsīs, and even in India, where the audience sometimes numbered in the thousands.
“Women in our movement can also preach very nicely,” you wrote to Mālatī Devī Dāsī on 25 December 1974. “Actually male and female bodies, these are just outward designations.… The qualification for leading class is how much one understands about Krsna and surrendering to the process. Not whether one is male or female.”
You clearly affirmed that “these women are not ordinary women. They are preachers. They are preachers. They are Vaiṣṇava. By their association, one becomes a Vaiṣṇava.” (Morning walk, Bombay, 27 March 1974)
And Mādhavānanda Dāsa recalls that at the end of a morning walk in Calcutta in 1972, when some brahmacārīs had been complaining about the presence of women in the temple, you corrected them, saying, “If you associate with these women, you will go back to Godhead.”
Your consistent care and respect for these ladies spurred them to perform colossal amounts of high-quality service for your movement. They often endured severe austerities, such as traveling in vans in freezing weather and tolerating the abuse of lusty men, just to distribute your books. They also, most unfortunately, had to endure, contrary to your wishes, disrespect from and marginalizing by many of your male disciples.
As your godbrothers criticized you for allowing ladies to live in the temples, some of my godbrothers will surely criticize me for making this topic the focus of my homage to you. I take solace, however, in your well-known instruction: “Do as I do.” I am simply trying to follow in your footsteps, which I am absolutely certain are progressing in the right direction and in the most effective and blissful way.
All glories to you, Śrīla Prabhupāda, and all your transcendentally genius preaching “adjustments”!
Your faithful disciple,
Mahādyuti Swami
Homages Non-GBC Sannyasis, VP2026
My Dearest Śrīla Prabhupāda,
Please accept my most humble obeisances again and again at your lotus feet. All glories to Your Divine Grace.
During a recent gathering in Pandharpur with my senior disciples, managers, and leaders we reflected deeply on the various instructions you gave me throughout my life, including how I endeavored to execute them, what still remains unfinished, and how many services, departments, projects, and preaching initiatives developed from those instructions. A major focus of our deliberations was the future: how these services and responsibilities would continue after my physical departure, and how they could be preserved, expanded, and carried forward into future generations.
From these reflections emerged a clearer understanding of the legacy projects and initiatives that, by your mercy, have been established and brought to maturity as direct offerings of service to your instructions. This reflection on the legacy created in your service forms the essence of this Vyāsa-pūjā offering. I humbly pray that my followers, particularly those entrusted with leadership and managerial responsibilities, will protect, nurture, and perpetuate these legacy services, for your continued pleasure.
The single most inspiring instruction of my life began on Rādhāṣṭamī, during a room conversation, on 1 September 1976, at Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Pārthasārathi Mandir in ISKCON Delhi: “You don’t need to travel on the bus in India. You can go by bullock cart.” You mercifully instructed me to begin the bullock cart saṅkīrtana preaching program (Padayātrā). Later, during the inaugural gathering in Vrindavan on 12 September 1976, you again instructed me, concluding with the words: “Yāre dekha tāre kaha ‘hare kṛṣṇa’-upadeśa.”
I always felt this was a personal and custom-made instruction for me. Ordinarily, the phrase is kṛṣṇa-upadeśa, but you specifically said hare kṛṣṇa-upadeśa. I understood from this that you were directing me to dedicate my life to propagating the holy name everywhere through Padayātrā.
These instructions, repeated through correspondence and personal encounters, became the sole direction and purpose of my life. You encouraged me: “Yes. Go from village to village. It is a very noble attempt. And if you sincerely preach, Kṛṣṇa will … buddhi-yogaṁ dadāmi taṁ yena mām upayānti te. There is no doubt.” (Vrindavan, September 12, 1976) What began as a single bullock cart gradually expanded into a worldwide movement of harināma-saṅkīrtana. On 16 March 1977 you wrote, “We can introduce many millions of such carts all over the world.”
In 1991, the ISKCON GBC formally recognized Padayātrā’s global mission: “To bring the congregational chanting of the holy name to every town and village of the world through organized Padayātrā festivals.”
Your desire continues to unfold. During your Centennial celebrations, Śrīla Prabhupāda, Padayātrās were conducted in more than one hundred countries. Collectively, they have now traveled over 400,000 kilometers, equivalent to circumambulating the earth sixteen times.
“Prasada distribution and chanting and book distribution is sufficient for your program.” (Letter, 23 December 1976)
Eight Indian states now conduct their own Padayātrās, which continues to be a leading contributor to book distribution, just as you instructed. As a service to your instruction, it is my earnest desire to see the Padayātrā movement carried forward for the next ten thousand years, until the chanting of the holy name reaches every town and every village.
For more than forty years, devotees from around the world have participated in the Kārttika Vraja-maṇḍala Parikramā. experiencing spiritual rejuvenation through thirty days of immersion in the holy dhāma.
Śrīla Prabhupāda, you established the great Mayapur and Vrindavan festivals, and parikramā has always been an integral part of these sacred festivals. Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu Himself performed this parikramā, and your Guru Mahārāja, Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura, organized Vraja parikramā in 1932, in which Your Divine Grace participated.
To help pilgrims understand the spiritual significance of each sacred place, I compiled Vraja-maṇḍala Darśana, a book that has now been translated into at least seven languages (and counting). Following your example and the tradition you upheld, I strongly feel that every single devotee should perform Vraja-maṇḍala parikramā at least once in their lifetime, and I pray that by your mercy, this tradition continues for thousands of years to come.
“The whole of India and specifically your Maharashtra are enthused with Krishna. Now you have to revive their Krishna consciousness … So revive them by the process of the sankirtana movement.” (Letter, 30 July 1977)
Inspired by this instruction, I initiated systematic preaching in Maharashtra, establishing temples and overseeing Deity installations so that devotees could have stable centers for sādhana, kirtan, preaching, education, festivals, and community life. You wrote: “Organize very solidly and thus increase the number of books distributed, the numbers of devotees made, and develop centers of Krishna consciousness everywhere.” (Letter, 30 July 1977)
Centers are flourishing in Maharashtra: Solapur (Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Dāmodara); Beed (Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Govinda-deva); Latur and Pachora (Jagannātha, Baladeva, and Subhadrā); Ichalkaranji (Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Śyāmasundara); and Amravati (Śrī Śrī Rukmiṇī-Dvārakādhiśa). These are the principal temples, alongside dozens of extension centers and preaching outposts.
In Gautam Buddha Nagar District, now known as Greater Delhi State, we have many temple projects – Noida, Greater Noida, and Jewa, to name a few. The opening of Noida International Airport has brought greater importance to our temple projects in the zone.
You wrote: “You should train the one farmer from your native village so that he can actually become an ISKCON representative there.” (Letter, 30 July 1977) The entire region has been spiritually elevated. Aravade, my birthplace, has become enthused with Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Gopāla has become a cherished place of pilgrimage and worship.
All these temples, projects, and initiatives have been developed in accordance with your vision – keeping a succession plan and the next generation of devotees in mind. The foundation has now been laid, and I look to the Regional Secretary assistants, leaders, and managers to carry this legacy forward to expand and maintain these efforts and “to revive Krishna consciousness by the process of the sankirtana movement.”
In the early 1970s, Śrīla Prabhupāda, you returned to India with your Western disciples. Looking at the map of India, you began identifying key locations for establishing centers of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. You put your finger on the map to indicate Nagpur, marked by the historic Zero Mile of India.
Recognizing its central position, you expressed your desire that a grand temple be established there. This instruction has taken form today as the beautiful lotus-shaped International Vedic Cultural Centre (IVCC), a majestic temple and cultural palace of Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Gopīnātha, a living embodiment of your wish and will.
Your affectionate statement, “Our Lokanath Swami is just like Saint Tukaram,” deeply connected me with Pandharpur and my traditional spiritual roots. Pandharpur is the spiritual capital of Maharashtra and the abode of Lord Viṭṭhala, and under your encouragement I began my preaching career there.
Pandharpur also has a strong Gauḍīya connection – Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s eleven-day visit there, Lord Nityānanda Prabhu’s initiation there by Lakṣmīpati Tīrtha, and Viśvarūpa winding up His pastimes and departing for the spiritual world from there.
The highlights of the new Bhūvaikuṇṭha Temple project include the iconic Prabhupāda Ghat, a magnificent temple, a Prabhupāda museum, exhibition galleries, a goshala, international-standard guesthouses, restaurants, extensive pilgrim services, the Rūpānuga Vidyāpīṭha (educational facilities), Bhaktivedanta Hospital, and a residential devotee community.
I pray that by your mercy, Śrīla Prabhupāda, the new Bhūvaikuṇṭha in Pandharpur will develop into a grand international spiritual and cultural hub, becoming well known throughout India and worldwide, revealing its spiritual glory to pilgrims and future generations.
Near Nagpur, in Maharashtra, lies Kaundanyapur, the birthplace of Śrīmatī Rukmiṇī Devī, a sacred dhāma deserving of global recognition. This holy dhāma is directly connected to one of the most beautiful pastimes of Lord Kṛṣṇa: the “kidnapping” pastime of Lord Kṛṣṇa and His accepting Rukmiṇī Devī as His eternal queen.
Our temple project, currently under development, stands on the site where Lord Kṛṣṇa’s chariot stood during the divine pastime. The Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava heritage, along with the importance of this holy place, call for it to be properly established, preserved, and revealed, so that it may become a recognized place of pilgrimage for Vaiṣṇavas worldwide. By your mercy and guidance, Śrīla Prabhupāda, and through my humble service, I aspire to see this sacred dhāma properly developed and revealed to the world.
In 2018, I established Zoom Harināma Mandir to ensure that devotees, especially initiated disciples, chant their rounds in the morning. Of course, it is open to all your followers and the disciples of my godbrothers, some of whom have been joining. Also, several of my godbrothers give japa talks. Now, seven years later, around two thousand devotees from across the world gather daily, and the initiative has been recognized by the World Book of Records for three consecutive years of uninterrupted global mantra meditation. I pray this nonsectarian online mandira continues long beyond my personal presence.
“There is need of making more Indian devotees. We have to make more men like you.” (Room conversation, Bombay, 1975) By your own example, you taught us that spiritual leadership means caring for people, shaping character, and cultivating devotion. You wrote: “Train them according to your needs. Krishna has given you and your companions a very nice responsibility. If you like you can go all over India and make it more and more in that way.” (Letter, 14 December 1976)
More than ten thousand of my disciples, and of course they are your granddisciples, in over fifty-five countries are now serving your mission. Initiation was only the beginning. I have endeavored to train, encourage, and gradually prepare them for meaningful service so they become spiritually strong, philosophically grounded, responsible, competent, cooperative gentlemen and capable of serving with maturity and integrity.
“Keep your behavior right to the point, set a very good example and others will follow. Yes, I want you to concentrate on preaching.” (Letter, 23 December 1976) Devotees learn not only through instruction, but through association, conduct, standards, and personal example. I have especially encouraged simplicity, humility, sādhana, Vaiṣṇava behavior, preaching spirit, and loyalty to ISKCON. My aim is to cultivate future servants, teachers, leaders, and caretakers of your movement. I am dependent mostly on them to continue, to maintain what has been created and, of course, further expand these programs and projects, Padayātrās and publications.
“Although it may take long to master Sanskrit, once it is learned, the student passes through ‘the gateway to education.’” (Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi 15.5 purport) Through your books, you carefully preserved Sanskrit Devanāgarī, transliteration, word-by-word meanings, translations, and introduced morning and evening recitations of the Gītā and Bhāgavatam so that devotees everywhere could gradually hear, read, pronounce, study, and appreciate the language of the Vedic literature. I want to encourage Sanskrit learning within ISKCON – academically, devotionally, and practically – so devotees may develop deeper appreciation and understanding of your books, prayers, mantras, and the original śāstric tradition.
You repeatedly emphasized the importance of proper pronunciation: “Every mantra of the Bhagavad-gita and Srimad-Bhagavatam is sabda-brahma … If the mantra is poorly articulated, then the sound form of the Lord is disfigured.” (Letter, 5 April 1970) With this inspiration, I also prepared a Sanskrit pronunciation guide to help devotees properly articulate Sanskrit sounds, chant verses carefully, sing prayers correctly, and gain confidence in approaching Sanskrit study. We humbly seek your blessings for this initiative to promote learning Sanskrit, including its correct pronunciation, so the devotees can better understand scripture. A selected group of learned ISKCON Sanskrit scholars will work with ISKCON’s Education Ministry to promote and propagate Sanskrit only to those who are voluntarily willing and competent to learn.
“The business of advanced and empowered devotees is to write books, publish them, and distribute them widely.” (Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya 19.132) I have authored about a dozen books and have many more writing projects in the pipeline. Śrīla Prabhupāda, only you could simultaneously write and translate books while traveling and managing ISKCON’s affairs worldwide. You instructed, “You do as I did,” but I am certainly not able to do as you did. Yours was an amazing and almost inconceivable feat. During the last leg of my journey, I am trying to hand over my managerial responsibilities so that I may find time for writing. I have established a publishing house called ISKCON Padayatra Press. I once again beg your blessings for success with this herculean task. Books are a very special significant part of a legacy. The physical body may leave, but one stays behind in the form of one’s books.
You had personally witnessed what happened after the departure of your own spiritual master. You clearly wrote: “Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura, at the time of his departure, requested all his disciples to form a governing body and conduct missionary activities cooperatively. He did not instruct a particular man to become the next ācārya.” (Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi 12.8, purport)
You did not want individual gurus to assume the position of independent ācāryas and ultimate managers, thereby fragmenting the institution into competing factions. You clearly foresaw the dangers of guru groupism, and therefore to fulfill your spiritual master’s instruction and protect ISKCON, you established the Governing Body Commission. In your final will, you stated: “The Governing Body Commission (GBC) will be the ultimate managing authority.”
I have personally endeavored to take practical and deliberate steps so that guru groupism and the Zonal Ācārya Syndrome may be checked and gradually eradicated, especially within ISKCON in India, where guru groupism still prevails. During the recent ISKCON India Bureau meeting, I put forward a proposal in this regard, which was accepted. It was resolved “that the ISKCON Bureau constitutes ISKCON India Guru and Sannyasa Services Committee to process, coordinate, and monitor the guru/sannyasa candidates and gurus/sannyasa,” of which I am a member. The essential aim is for many gurus, many leaders, and many services, but one heart and one unified mission under the GBC, as you envisaged.
On the occasion of your 130th Vyāsa-pūjā, Śrīla Prabhupāda, I humbly offer this account of my imperfect efforts to serve your instructions. Many of these initiatives are still developing and have not yet matured. I therefore beg your blessings for strength, intelligence, and purity for myself and for those who will carry these efforts forward for your pleasure.
Your servant always,
Lokanāth Swami
Homages Non-GBC Sannyasis, VP2026
Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda,
I take this occasion to again celebrate your blessed appearance in our midst as an opportunity to offer prostrated, heartfelt obeisance to your lotuslike feet, and to submit this reflective attempt to offer you praise.
While reading your purport to Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 2.9.36 – the last of the four verses on “the mystery of all inquiries” identified by our ācāryas as the catuḥ-ślokī Bhāgavatam, or Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in four verses, I appreciate your clarity in identifying the core motivation of worldly life, namely “sense gratification.” English language historians tell us that the word “gratify” in earlier times had the positive sense of showing grace or favor on someone, suggesting a spirit of goodwill toward that person, whereas now, since the eighteenth century, it indicates personal satisfaction or indulgence of one’s own desires. Your intended meaning of “gratification” is surely associated with the word’s later usage, characterized by the “me first” mentality. You have written,
The whole material existence has sprung up because of sense gratification, desires based principally on the sex desire, and the result is that in spite of all advancement of knowledge, the final goal of all the activities of the living entities is sense gratification.
By this simple analysis you, in effect, deconstruct and dismantle the entire edifice of “modern” and “postmodern” philosophical thought. More strongly put, you have gutted the edifice by your encompassing frame of “the whole material existence.”
The intellectual world – mainly in the decades following your presence among us – has seen the rise to prominence of ideas bundled as “postmodernity.” J. A. J. Storm explains that five themes are typically bundled together under the term “postmodernism”:
(1) Antirealism; (2) an emphasis on endings, which have often included disciplinary autocritique; (3) an extreme version of the linguistic turn that characterizes the world in terms of texts; (4) a broad climate of skepticism; and (5) ethical relativism (sometimes called “ethical nihilism”).
You, Śrīla Prabhupāda, have anticipated and challenged all five of these features of postmodernism in the course of your writings and talks, but in your purport to Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 2.9.36 you hint at addressing the second feature, namely the emphasis on endings, as you note that,
[A]ll advancement of knowledge in the present context of things is being misused by cats and dogs fighting with one another for sense gratification, and all acquisition of knowledge in science, philosophy, fine arts, nationalism, economic development, religion and great activities are being spoiled by being used as dresses for dead men.
To describe “all acquisition of knowledge” as “being used as dresses for dead men” is an expression in your characteristically rhetorical style of condemnation and dismissal of any and all philosophical ventures as so many dead ends, so long as they fall short of minimally acknowledging the existence of a supreme being.
I find another striking example of your rhetorical style two verses previous (2.9.34). In your purport you use the word “sane” five times: The “sane man” is “enlightened in the disciplic succession”; “the sane man … accepts this statement of the Lord [ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavo …]”; “[t]he sane man … knows [that the “Lord is the original source of all emanations …”]; “… the sane person knows clearly that the Lord can act, even from far, far beyond our vision …”; and “… the sane person knows prakṛti as the illusory energy of the Lord.”
A critic would likely insist that your use of the word sane implies censure of all persons who don’t fit your criteria of sanity as necessarily “insane.” They would accuse you of implying – if not directly making – ad hominem arguments, a type of logical fallacy that works rhetorically by the social force of shaming.
To this I would reply that your aim is not to gain points in the halls of the logicians; rather, your aim is clearly to open minds to a most radical proposition, namely, as you write in your purport to the first of these four essential verses (2.9.33), “… one should aspire for personal realization of the Lord …” Here is the full context of this last exhortation by you:
Even in the impersonal existence of the Lord, as it is in the material creation, one should aspire for personal realization of the Lord, and that is the meaning of paścād ahaṁ yad etac ca yo ’vaśiṣyeta so ’smy aham.
My prayer to you is that I may fully imbibe this – your thoroughly deconstructive vision of this world as the product of sense gratification, and your striking reconstruction of this world’s apparent impersonhood – as an opportunity to have personal realization of the Lord. May I, by the power of your words and the profound care they carry, cherish the vision you offer through apparent rhetorical flourish. And may I thus be able to reach beyond the manifold worldly insanity that passes as “modern” or “postmodern” reasoning to deepen my aspiration for personal realization of the Lord, under your able and challenging guidance.
Always your servant,
Kṛṣṇa Kṣetra Swami
Homages Non-GBC Sannyasis, VP2026
Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda,
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
I offer my obeisance in the dust of your lotus feet.
Just now, I listened to a lecture by Nirañjana Swami given at an initiation in Lithuania and reminding us of what initiation meant in the early 1970s. The prominent aspect in those formative years, he so relevantly exposed, is that the mood of “I must do” or “have to do” was not our incentive. Unfortunately, I must say my mood is that I have to write my offering, since today is the deadline. And, it will be the “deadline” anytime soon.
Vyāsa-pūjā day again and again – at every moment you are appearing. But the specific day of your appearance is the most glorious day of our lives and indeed of the whole world, even though it may be unknown to almost everyone. The privilege of writing an offering to you is the greatest good fortune. That privilege is the right of each and every aspiring servant who is following in your footsteps. Writing an offering is an essential act of connection, of association.
In the words of Lord Kapila you so kindly gave us:
prasaṅgam ajaraṁ pāśam
ātmanaḥ kavayo viduḥ
sa eva sādhuṣu kṛto
mokṣa-dvāram apāvṛtam
“Every learned man knows very well that attachment for the material is the greatest entanglement of the spirit soul. But that same attachment, when applied to the self-realized devotees, opens the door of liberation.” (Bhāgavatam 3.25.20)
This is one of those foundational verses giving us a constant reminder of the path you walk and implore that we follow.
Absorbed in thinking of you, it is a time to deepen our attachment to you. A time to glorify you. To enter deeply into our relationship with you. To deepen our appreciation of you. To dedicate and rededicate ourselves to you. To remember all that you have done. To ponder your mission. To reflect on the movement since your departure and the amazing achievements of many of your disciples both within and without. A day to cry to you for mercy – to repent, to appreciate others, to let go of our false ego and embrace the transcendental ego of being proud to have the chance to associate with you. A day to realize how little devotion I have. A day of surrender.
These are the most intimate and significant moments of the year, simply thinking of you while attempting to write some words. Words from the heart. A golden opportunity to be honest. Of course, we should be honest at every moment, but this is the special time to truly feel your darshan, which is still as much available now as ever – in fact, it’s even more available now through your ever-expanding family, because we can remember you through the many memories and accounts of your interactions and revelations others share with us.
Especially on this day, Kṛṣṇa provided technological methods by which we can absorb ourselves in hearing and seeing the pure devotee. Above all your books is you, and you are the transparent medium in the books through which we can see Kṛṣṇa on every page. You are so powerful that by all these means you give your association to us, according to our surrender.
As Kṛṣṇa appears in many forms by which we witness the actions of His energies and thereby remember Him, so you also appear in many forms. We can remember you in practically everything, since you are not only a transcendentalist showing us that which is beyond our vision, but you are bringing that transcendence into the external world, to which we relate in every way. In every breath, step, thought, act, interaction, word, and deed. St. Francis of Assisi once said in answer to the question, “When we go out to preach, should we walk?”: “It is no use walking anywhere to preach unless our walking is our preaching.” Yes, you taught us to see everything in relationship with Kṛṣṇa and to use it the way He would like.
Today, we can reflect on what causeless good fortune we have to be so close to such an exalted person – the rarest opportunity in this world, what to speak of in Kali-yuga. Associating with you means associating with Kṛṣṇa, since Kṛṣṇa is always with you in your every moment.
Those in the outside world think you have gone, but you have not. You have left the boat of pure devotion on this shore for us to board. The boat is the shelter of your lotus feet, your instructions, and more.
This year, your birthday falls on September 5, at least in France. I look often at the VedaBase to see what you did on that day, what you said, and what was happening around you on that date. This is one way that we can hear and see you during your manifest pastimes every day. Another nice way to feel your presence at every moment.
In his book, Servant of the Servant, Tamāl Krishna Goswami mentions some of the drops of mercy you shared with a few disciples in your room on 5 September 1977. You were at Bhaktivedanta Manor on that day and in the last few months of your manifest presence. You were in extremely severe health.
“Oh, you are doing so much. If I live or die, it is all right. Otherwise, I want to see you all a little stronger.”
“As a father likes to see his estate nicely managed, so I am like that. Get places and print. The whole world is simply waiting for Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Let us give them something. Let them be happy.”
“We were sitting with Prabhupāda in his sitting room after darshan,” Tamāl Krishna Mahārāja writes. “Seeing an opportune moment, I presented Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Tenth Canto, Part One. With great affection he took the Bhāgavatam, held it to his head respectfully, and turned from page to page, reading everything carefully. Then he wanted us to read. I said, “You must give us all the chapters of the Tenth Canto.” With a look that expressed determination and confidence that Kṛṣṇa would enable him, Prabhupāda agreed. He was then offered the Vyāsa-puja book. Turning each page and looking at all the pictures, he remarked, “Like father, like son.”
On September 5, 1974, Śrīla Prabhupāda wrote to Bali Mardana: “My only anxiety is to guide you. Krishna sometimes makes me sick just to examine how much you have learned to conduct the business under my guidance, with a little independence. You should never act independently, because my guidance in my words are always there. The main guidance is all of us should remain spiritually strong by chanting the minimum number of rounds and following the rules and regulations.”
Another transcendental way you are always guiding us to Kṛṣṇa through sickness and, finally, death.
And for me, who had little direct association with you, you are fully present in unlimited ways, although I do not fully appreciate it.
Your presence is felt in the annals of time.
To this day it remains fully sublime.
As we ponder your presence in the darkness of night
The memories of you give us light.
What sustains me and others is your life of submission
To your guru’s orders and Kṛṣṇa’s transmission.
Your vāṇī remains for all to embrace
Delivering fully your divine grace.
You have left the boat on this forlorn shore
To ferry us over with the spiritual oar
And bring us safely to the other side,
Free from illusion no more to hide,
To serve your Lord Kṛṣṇa with heart and soul
To realize that He’s in control.
Where to begin and never to end
I offer this ode which on this day do send
On your 130th appearance day
Submit to your feet and fervently pray
That the glorification of your family tree
Will mercifully help me to properly see
Exactly what’s happening beyond this mind
And open my eyes which are presently blind.
Your books, your temples, your eating, your talks,
Your breathing, your dressing, your movements, your walks,
Your smiling, chastisements, your humor, your love,
Compassion personified, descend from above.
Your chanting and dancing, your writing, dictations,
Your boldness in preaching “form united nations.”
’Tis bhakti alone that will save the world,
The love within becoming unfurled.
Your care and attention to every and all,
Your reading and praying you lovingly call
To the Lord of your heart and His consort,
Guru and Vaiṣṇavas who give us support.
Your śiṣyas, godbrothers, to preaching the dharma,
Your dealings with others causing no harm
To the children, the public, to women, and old,
Preach no matter in heat and in cold.
Don’t drive too fast and turn off the light.
Relish prasādam with every bite.
Waste not the prasādam, not even a grain.
Turn off the tap lest it pour down the drain
Keep the kitchen clean, it’s Rādhā’s abode.
The bathrooms, the toilets, spotlessly glowed.
The bedrooms, the storerooms, and all that exists –
To clean them persistently you did insist.
Be careful with lakṣmī, to us it belongs not.
Remember that no matter what we have got.
Must be used in his service down to the line
For Kṛṣṇa’s pleasure and not for mine.
To all living beings compassion you show
Animals and birds and especially the cow,
To the plants and the trees, the horse and the bees,
To the fish and the insects, the dog or the fly
They are Kṛṣṇa’s children – they don’t want to die.
Your darshans, your lectures, your letters galore,
The Deities that you installed for all
The farms, the schools, the restaurants too,
Scientific preaching to show us what’s true.
And book distribution, your heart and soul,
Showing clearly what is life’s ultimate goal.
To us you gave the lawbooks of mankind:
For 10,000 years we can find
Direction, inspiration and every solution.
Push us on with unlimited distribution
On the streets of New York alone you did go.
The perfect example you did mercifully show.
Let’s make this yajña our life and soul;
To distribute books our primary goal.
Your travels, your dealings with problems galore,
Your patience, humility, and unlimited more.
Your qualities are beyond our scope.
Your mercy stands as our only hope.
I can’t forget prasādam at least two times a day.
That’s 40,000 helpings – around forty tons, I’d say.
And my favorite halava, two tons downed at least –
Where has it gone, I ask myself, the fruit of many a feast.
But for me above all your presence is found
In your followers both gone and those still around
Who have carried your love wherever they go,
No matter how small or if we don’t know
Who they are or what they did,
Their service to you is never hid
From the Lord of the heart who sees each act
Recording their good fortune, He keeps a track.
To the lesser known who humbly pursue
The path of devotion and service to you
Not expecting any honor or recognition,
Their devotion unswerving serving the mission.
To those who have temporarily drifted
We know that their service will always be gifted
With your unending mercy to bring them back home
Even though they may have appeared to roam.
To the GBC who relentlessly stay
Sacrificing their lives to maintain your way
With the ongoing challenge of keeping the mission
From breaking apart causing division
Facing challenges galore and criticism
Have stayed together avoiding a schism.
To numerous devotees who give me light
To help me through this darkness of night
Where oftentimes I lose my sight
And often consider to give up the fight
This is your vāṇī, which keeps me alive
I pray that your mission will unlimitedly thrive.
Maintaining your gifts and not claiming them mine
But to humbly submit for eternal time.
To hold your hand and never let go
Submit at your feet and remain always low
To be guided by you and never depart
To accept you in the core of my heart
As my life and soul your vāṇī I hold
Your living example a drop has been told.
At this time of reflection
Unavoidable dejection
To see so many stalwarts depart
And now when this body is old
And energies are almost sold
Please appear within my heart.
To guide me on the final leg
Your mercy I humbly beg.
I know that some clever or foolish poetry means nothing in and of itself, especially when it is presented with desire for recognition, but I hope that somehow a small drop will benefit someone and maybe please you. At least it has occupied my devious mind in thinking of you for hours on end. For this opportunity I thank you again and again, Śrīla Prabhupāda, for “appearing in this world” and allowing such a rogue as myself the privilege of a drop of your association.
When, as Nirañjana Mahārāja so succinctly pointed out, will that “have to do” become a “want to do” and eventually “all that I do”? I wish that could be my permanent state.
Servant of your servants’ servants,
Janānanda Goswami
Homages Non-GBC Sannyasis, VP2026
Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda,
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Your Divine Grace.
As I am your initiated disciple and you are my (now physically unmanifest) representation of Paramātmā, I have always taken it for granted that you are naturally aware of my intentions and activities. But since my practical service is presently so meager, I have begun to question my ability to draw your attention. I am, however, confident that you will attend to the sincere offerings of your more devoted and productive followers and, in this way, you may kindly also take notice of mine by association.
kāmādīnāṁ kati na katidhā pālitā durnideśās
teṣāṁ jātā mayi na karuṇā na trapā nopaśāntiḥ
utsṛjyaitān atha yadu-pate sāmprataṁ labdha-buddhis
tvām āyātaḥ śaraṇam abhayaṁ māṁ niyuṅkṣvātma-dāsye
O my Lord, there is no limit to the unwanted orders of lusty desires. Although I have rendered these desires so much service, they have not shown any mercy to me. I have not been ashamed to serve them, nor have I even desired to give them up. O my Lord, O head of the Yadu dynasty, recently, however, my intelligence has been awakened, and now I am giving them up. Due to transcendental intelligence, I now refuse to obey the unwanted orders of these desires, and I now come to You to surrender myself at Your fearless lotus feet. Kindly engage me in Your personal service and save me.
I am very weary of being in a material body that obstructs my every effort to render devotional service, coupled with a stubborn mind stuck in deep ruts from countless lifetimes. I would therefore like to beg a fervent request of Your Divine Grace: please petition our Lord to cleanse my consciousness and fashion me as an instrument in carrying out His mission to redirect this hell-bent society. You have given me so much, and although I am neither an orator nor a scholar, I do have an aptitude and apparent ability as a “reading leader” for sādhakas, as well as a distributor of your gifts to the public. Please engage me by your transcendental “power of attorney.”
Your servant,
Gaṇapati Swami
Homages Non-GBC Sannyasis, VP2026
Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda,
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Your Divine Grace.
If Not for You
If not for you, I wouldn’t know who I am.
Eternally part of Krishna’s plan,
I would still be a number-one fool,
wouldn’t know what to do,
not even have a clue,
and not know that God has a blue hue.
If not for you, I would still
be turning on the big wheel
in different species of life,
like a hamster in his cage
trying to get his fill,
with no direction in sight,
putting up an impressive fight,
but with no direction in sight.
You opened my door and gave me the will;
otherwise, I would still be on the mill.
If not for you, the bhakti seed would not have sprouted,
with transcendental knowledge forming
the basis of elevation and satisfaction.
From muddy waters to blooming flowers,
I was surprised how quickly I towered.
If not for you, the holy name wouldn’t have entered my heart,
allowing me a brand-new start,
independently vibrating my tongue,
and in disbelief, I also sang.
If not for you, I wouldn’t have tasted
samosas and kachoris cooked in ghee.
The only fee was to chant “Hare Kṛṣṇa,”
be happy, and be free.
If not for you, I wouldn’t climb so high,
reaching for the spiritual sky.
You have comforted me to try and try.
I am convinced it is not a lie,
and all I need to do is comply.
Bhakti relationship is based on pure love;
only then will Kṛṣṇa welcome you into his home
with an enchanting smile and a big hug.
Love seems to be the hardest to will;
therefore, please drag me home to Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa
in whichever way you feel.
Your servant,
Dhīraśānta dāsa Goswami
