Bhakti Cārudeśna Swami

Homages Non-GBC Sannyasis, VP2026

Dear jagad-guru Śrīla Prabhupāda,

Please accept my humble obeisances at your divine holy feet. All glories to your lotuslike ISKCON movement.

I say “lotuslike ISKCON movement” because some weeks ago, I attended a wonderful seminar on Religious Movements, on the account of a GBC college course. From the seminar, I realized that although the ISKCON movement is much younger and not much spread compared to other spiritual organizations who are far older in terms of their existence, ISKCON’s teachings are very unique and more elaborate in terms of essence and conclusion on the Absolute Truth. So you were nominated with the title: A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami, the one who revealed the conclusion of the Vedas.

You are a special spiritual ambassador who brought a special message at the right time, circumstance, and place (the Western countries). Some other spiritual messages become irrelevant in the modern society with the evolution of time, but your teachings are timeless and very practical to all situations.

Your teachings are practical to every class of person in the society … rich, poor, scholars, scientists, politicians, businesspeople, etc. There is nothing you didn’t teach in your books. Today we are hearing about nuclear and atomic weapons, but these are not new. In Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam we know that Aśvatthāmā threw a brahmāstra (mystical weapon) at the womb of Uttara.

We see marvellous buildings and astonishing architectural works, like the Egyptian pyramids and others, but these are not new. Viśvakarmā built the marvellous Indraprastha city for the Pāṇḍavas. There are many more examples to mention.

Now the world is amazed by so many discoveries, and we talk about the eight wonders of the world. But in the Bhagavad-gītā (10.8) Kṛṣṇa says: “I am the source of all spiritual and material worlds.” So Kṛṣṇa is the real wonderful person to whom we need to give all respect and credit.

We know all those things by your mercy. Thank you for being the torchlight for a society in deep darkness.

Begging to remain the servant of your servants,
Bhakti Cārudeśna Swami

Bhakti Bhāgavatāmṛta Keśava Swami

Homages Non-GBC Sannyasis, VP2026

Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda,

Please accept my humble obeisances in the dust of your lotus feet. All glories to Your Divine Grace!

oṁ ajñāna-timirāndhasya jñānāñjana-śalākayā
cakṣur unmīlitaṁ yena tasmai śrī-gurave namaḥ

I was born in the darkest ignorance, and my spiritual master opened my eyes with the torch of knowledge. I offer my respectful obeisances unto him.

This well-known statement from the śāstras directly applies to me, because simply reading your books Śrī Īśopaniṣad and Bhagavad-gītā As It Is completely changed my life. Simply by receiving your association and reading these transcendental books, I gained an understanding of the supreme meaning of human life, and an irresistible desire to spread this knowledge to everyone arose in my heart. Such is the amazing influence of your words. And your desire to spread Kṛṣṇa consciousness to all people continues to greatly inspire me. Thank you very much for the opportunity to participate in this wonderful movement!

Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda, during these thirty-six years of my involvement with your Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, I have always felt your boundless love and care for everyone. You said that ISKCON is your body. Thus, you always remain with us and continue to bestow your divine mercy on everyone. During these years of my involvement with ISKCON I have seen many people whose lives were radically transformed by their contact with this wonderful movement and who became wonderful devotees. All these devotees are eternally grateful to you, as they feel your transcendental presence in their lives. Thank you very much for this opportunity to witness your divine līlās and for the opportunity to participate in them.

Perhaps your most astonishing quality is your ability to always see the best in everyone and engage them in your mission. Reading stories from your life, one can see countless examples of how you entrusted so much responsibility to your inexperienced and undertrained disciples. And this trust of yours greatly inspired thousands of devotees to surrender their lives to you. And most astonishingly, this can be observed even today in the lives of thousands of devotees around the world. I also constantly feel this in my spiritual life: although I lack the necessary qualifications, you, acting through the senior members of our society, entrust me with more and more responsibility. Please bless me to be worthy of your trust and to be an instrument of your divine grace.

Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda, this year in Russia we celebrate fifty-five years since your first and only visit to our country. That brief visit changed the lives of many thousands of people. Every year, the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement grows in our country. The number of devotees is growing, new preaching centers and ISKCON temples are opening, and more and more educated and spiritually mature devotees are taking responsibility for the development of your mission in Russia. There is no doubt that all of this is happening solely by your grace, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

We still have much to do in Russia to put your vision into practice. We still need to work on establishing the systematic training and education of devotees, especially the leaders. We need to create cohesive communities of devotees, including agricultural communities. We need to expand the distribution of your transcendental books and organize educational programs for the general public, continuing to seek new and innovative methods for spreading Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Please bless us to carry out this service to the best of our ability.

We are now experiencing a crucial period of development, when your direct disciples, who have been our leaders for many years, are passing on their authority to the next generation of devotees. Please bless us so that we can preserve all that they have taught us and further develop the mission in accordance with your vision and desire.

Your insignificant servant,

Bhakti Bhāgavatāmṛta Keśava Swami

Bhakti Ārjava Prīti Vardhana Swami

Homages Non-GBC Sannyasis, VP2026

Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda,

Please accept my most humble obeisances at the dust of your lotus feet. All glories to Your Divine Grace.

For the past three years, by your mercy, I have been traveling throughout South America. In this vibrant land, I have found a great treasure: people who are naturally warm, deeply personal, and eager for genuine relationships. Seeing their enthusiasm to practice bhakti has been a great source of inspiration for me.

I am deeply grateful for how you have cleared so many misconceptions about the process of bhakti. In your books, you have so carefully explained sambandha-jñāna, teaching us not only that God exists, but who He is and how we are related to Him. I often remember your encouragement to study the teachings of Queen Kuntī. Through her example, you reveal that our relationship with the Lord is not only one of awe and reverence, but also one of deep personal and intimate devotion.

Recently, I had an encounter in Paraguay with two Christian priests that confirmed the universal relevance of your message. Though they were initially defensive, by your grace, I was able to present the inclusive nature of Vaiṣṇava philosophy. I explained that God is one but has many names – just as the sun is one, regardless of the language used to describe it – and that the ultimate goal of all genuine spiritual paths is the same: to awaken our dormant love for Him.

When I spoke about the personal nature of our relationship with the Divine, drawing from the prayers of Queen Kuntī, their hearts softened. They were surprised by the vast depth, completeness, and clarity of the Vedic understanding. They admitted that they were accustomed to a more rigid approach, and expressed appreciation for the philosophical completeness of your teachings. They left our discussion not as “opponents,” but as thoughtful seekers.

Śrīla Prabhupāda, this experience reaffirmed for me that your books are a powerful resource for addressing both intellectual doubt and the deeper needs of the heart. I am grateful for the guidance you have given, which allows me to connect with others in a spirit of understanding rather than conflict.

Please bless me that I may continue to realize and share your message with sincerity, compassion, and clarity.

Your grateful servant,

Bhakti Ārjava Prīti Vardhana Swami

Bhakti Anugraha Janārdana Swami

Homages Non-GBC Sannyasis, VP2026

My most beloved eternal master, founder-ācārya of ISKCON, His Divine Grace Śrīla Prabhupāda,

oṁ ajñāna-timirāndhasya jñānāñjana-śalākayā
cakṣur unmīlitaṁ yena tasmai śrī-gurave namaḥ

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

On this most sacred Vyāsa-pūjā day, I offer my koṭi koṭi prostrated obeisances again and again unto your lotus feet. Whatever little faith I have, whatever little service I attempt, whatever little realization has appeared in my life, whatever capacity I have to chant the holy name, speak hari-kathā, worship the Deity, guide disciples, travel, preach, or tolerate the dualities of this world – everything rests upon your causeless mercy.

I stand before you not as one qualified but as one sustained by your mercy. I am not a servant of your stature, nor even a proper servant of your servants; still, by the inconceivable compassion flowing through the guru-paramparā you have allowed unqualified souls like me to touch the dust of your mission. This is your greatness: you did not come to seek the qualified – you came to create qualification by devotion to Kṛṣṇa, obedience to guru, and engagement in service.

Śrīla Prabhupāda, you crossed the ocean not merely to found an institution but to transplant Goloka’s message into this world. You carried the order of your spiritual master as your life and soul. You came with no material support, but with complete dependence on Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Śyāmasundara, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, and your guru-varga. In this age of quarrel, chaos, confusion, compromise, and spiritual superficiality, you established the eternal conclusions of the Vedas with the courage of a lion and the heart of a mother.

You gave us Kṛṣṇa in sound.

You gave us Kṛṣṇa in books.

You gave us Kṛṣṇa in the holy name.

You gave us Kṛṣṇa in Deity worship.

You gave us Kṛṣṇa in Vaiṣṇava association.

You gave us Kṛṣṇa in a life of disciplined surrender.

You gave us not merely a theology, but a way of living.

You gave us not merely a movement, but a family in service to Lord Caitanya’s prophecy.

As your granddisciple, I feel deeply that my life has value only insofar as it is connected to your desire. As a sannyāsī, I must belong wholly to your mission. As an initiating spiritual master, I must never think that anyone is “my” disciple independent of you. They are your servants, entrusted temporarily to my care. If I guide them at all, it must only be by faithfully carrying your words, your mood, your standards, your compassion, and your uncompromising commitment to siddhānta and sādhana.

My own Guru Mahārāja taught me, by instruction and personal example, that loyalty to Śrīla Prabhupāda is not sentiment alone – it is sacrifice, steadiness, humility, purity, practical service, and lifelong obedience. To honor my Guru Mahārāja truly means to bring his offering to completion by serving your mission without selfishness, fatigue, politics, possessiveness, or distraction. To represent him means to represent you. To represent you means to represent the entire disciplic succession. And to represent the disciplic succession means to remain transparent – to not stand in the way of grace.

Śrīla Prabhupāda, please save me from the hidden enemies within: pride disguised as leadership, possessiveness disguised as care, hardness disguised as strength, diplomacy without purity, scholarship without surrender, renunciation without dependence, preaching without prayer, and external success without inner transformation. Let me never become honored in the world, but hollow before guru and Kṛṣṇa.

Please grant me the intelligence to always remember that the real qualification of a spiritual leader is not position, following, title, or admiration, but fidelity. You wrote, “The spiritual master is the transparent via medium.” That is the prayer of my life: let me become transparent, not opaque; representative, not replacement; servant, not enjoyer; instrument, not proprietor.

Let me remember that one who speaks on your behalf must first hear on your behalf. One who guides must first be guided. One who asks surrender from others must live in surrender himself. One who invokes your name must protect your standards. One who wears saffron must burn with responsibility. One who initiates must nourish, protect, correct, encourage, and pray for the souls entrusted to him. One who is called guru must tremble at the word.

Śrīla Prabhupāda, may I never reduce your movement to management without mercy, sentiment without structure, scholarship without service, expansion without depth. Let me help build men and women of character, conviction, purity, taste, and lifelong commitment. Let me teach not merely by speech but by conduct; not merely by philosophy but by tears; not merely by standards but by personal example.

Please bless me that I may carry your mission in a way that pleases your lotus heart:

• with strict sādhana, because without hearing and chanting I cannot represent you;
• with deep study of śāstra, because without siddhānta, compassion becomes sentiment;
• with humility, because Kṛṣṇa’s message does not descend into a proud heart;
• with courage, because truth must still be spoken in Kali-yuga;
• with compassion, because you came especially for the fallen;
• with cooperation, because your movement thrives on love in service;
• with purity in dealings, because the preacher’s life is part of the message;
• with dependence on the holy name, because everything begins and ends there.

If there is any worth in my life, let it be this: that I tried, however imperfectly, to remain faithful to your order. Let my words increase faith in your books. Let my presence increase loyalty to your movement. Let my guidance increase surrender to Kṛṣṇa. Let my example increase respect for the guru-paramparā. Let my disciples become your genuine followers, not merely admirers of personality. Let my renunciation nourish preaching. Let my preaching nourish remembrance. Let my remembrance nourish humility. Let my humility nourish dependence on the holy name.

On this Vyāsa-pūjā day, I beg not for comfort, recognition, or ease, but I beg for service. I beg for steadiness. I beg for purity of motive. I beg for the strength to continue. I beg for the honesty to see my faults. I beg for the courage to correct those faults. I beg for the heart to love your devotees. I beg for the intelligence to represent my Guru Mahārāja with dignity and loyalty. I beg for the determination to never leave the shelter of your lotus feet in any condition of life.

Please let me become an instrument to bring others to your shelter. Let me teach them by word and example that surrender is practical, determination is nourished daily, and faith becomes real when translated into obedience. Let me never forget that your mission is not maintained by institutional force alone but by the purity, sacrifice, and prayers of those who sincerely serve.

May I always remain a tiny servant of your servants, birth after birth.

Your insignificant servant, aspiring to remain sheltered at your lotus feet,

Bhakti Anugraha Janārdana Swami