His Grace Madhu Pandit Dasa, President, ISKCON Bangalore offers his Vyasa Puja homage on Srila Prabhupada’s Appearance Day.
Dear Srila Prabhupada,
Please accept my most respectful obeisance at Your lotus feet. All glories to Your Divine Grace.
The glories of Your Divine Grace’s devotional service to Lord Chaitanya are un-paralleled. Lord Chaitanya’s mission has spread all over the world because of Your tireless effort. You planted the seed of the Nama Sankirtana Movement, across the world in a short time, most miraculously.
In Sri Chaitanya-Charitamrita, it is said:
… krsna-sakti vina nahe tara pravartana
… Unless empowered by Krishna, one cannot propagate the sankirtana movement
– (C.C Antya 7.11)
Thus Your Divine Grace was directly empowered by Krishna to preach Nama all over the world.
In a morning walk conversation on January 4, 1976 in Nellore, devotees asked you a question:
Devotee (2): Prabhupada, they said that if Chaitanya Mahaprabhu wanted Krishna consciousness in the Western countries, why didn’t He go there Himself? That’s what they told us.
Prabhupada: So He left the credit for me. (laughter)
Devotees: Jaya! Haribol!”
Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu named Srila Haridas Thakur as Nama Acharya, because of his intense faith in the Holy Name and his chanting of 3 lakh names every day. Haridas Thakur is the Nama Acharya on account of his intense japa seva of daily three lakh names. Your Divine Grace is the Nama Acharya for prachara seva of delivering the Holy Name all over the world.
– You revealed to the world that God is most mercifully in our midst in His Nama incarnation – Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare/ Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare. And this incarnation is performing His lilas of recovering the fallen souls. We are so very fortunate to have received the many secrets revealed by Your Divine Grace, about chanting and serving the Holy Name incarnation.
– You revealed the precious truth that the Supreme Lord is pleased when we chant His Names – that He is more pleased when we chant and hear His Names – that He is most pleased when we chant, hear and also remember His Names.
– You revealed that the precious truth that the Supreme Lord is non-different from His Holy Name and hence present before us when we chant.
– You revealed the precious truth that the Holy Name is an unlimited ocean of sat cit ananda and we are also tiny sac cit ananda.
– You revealed the precious truth that the Holy Name is directly touching the soul when we hear attentively.
-You revealed the precious truth that hearing the Holy Name will spiritualize our body, mind, intelligence.
-You revealed the precious truth that our soul could awaken our forgotten love for Krishna simply by hearing the Holy Name.
-You revealed the precious truth that we should give undivided attention to the Holy Name during japa.
-You revealed the precious truth that we should have undivided intention to please the Lord with each mantra.
-You revealed the precious truth that we should chant with determination to complete our 16 rounds every day.
-You revealed the precious truth that we should have faith in the presence of the Lord in the form of His Name.
-You revealed the truth that we should have hope that Holy Name will shower His mercy upon us.
-You revealed the precious truth that one could attain all perfection of life by simply chanting, hearing and remembering the Holy Names daily a fixed number of rounds.
-You revealed the precious truth as to what is the right context of knowledge, faith and feelings in the mind to receive and serve the Holy Name.
-You revealed the precious truth that by praying to Lord Chaitanya, He forgives all offenses in chanting Holy Names.
–You revealed the most precious truths that we should attentively serve the Holy Name with intention to please the Holy Name by chanting, hearing, remembering with feelings of faith, hope, humility, surrender, gratitude, respect and love for the Lord building up the fixed number of rounds every day.
Thus along with the Holy Name you have given us this treasure house of knowledge of how to serve the Holy Name. On how we can receive bountiful reciprocation from the Holy Name in the form of self-purification and in the form of awakening our pure self-knowledge in order to regain our original position in the spiritual world as eternal sat cit ananda servants of Krishna.
There can be no other process of self-realization than Nama sankirtana and Nama japa in this age of Kali. Since the Holy Name is in our midst and is performing the lila of delivering us, You have actually made us all very fortunate members of the Supreme Lord’s personal lila, by making us recipients of this unlimited mercy.
Yogis and jnanis get liberation from this material world after performing such intense tapasya. But today, since you mercifully took the Holy Name all over the world, even an ordinary, obedient follower of Your Divine Grace can achieve results many times greater than liberation which is awakening our Krishna bhakti, without any great tapasya, of body and mind.
Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura has said that if one does not chant 64 rounds then he is not a human being. But knowing the fallen condition of the people of this age, at Your personal spiritual risk, You have discounted this prescription and instructed us to simply chant minimum 16 rounds under your order. This takes about two hours a day and for this you have most munificently assured to deliver us from this world. Unbelievable super discounted mercy. Therefore you are the saviour of the whole world. Srila Prabhupada, we can never repay our debt to you for mercifully giving us the precious Holy Name.
Srila Prabhupada, I regret that I have no pure devotion to Your Divine Grace. I am sad that I have no absolute love for You. Apart from a feeling of gratitude for saving me from ignorance, I have only intellectual and philosophical appreciation for You as my eternal spiritual master. However the scriptures reveal that unless one has the same faith and love for Guru as much as he has for Krishna, the secrets of all Vedas are not revealed:
yasya deve para bhaktir
yatha deve tatha gurau
tasyaite kathita hy arthah
prakasante mahatmanah
The real import of the scriptures is revealed to one who has unflinching faith in both the Supreme Personality of Godhead and the spiritual master.
Srila Prabhupada, when will I have that implicit faith and love for you, required under this prescription from the Svetasvatara Upanishad-6.23, to call myself Your true disciple?
Just as Krishna’s love can be given to anyone only by Him unto those who desperately want it, in the same way love for You can finally only be given by You unto those who desperately want it. I do not know anyone other than Your Divine Grace who can help this fallen soul to learn how to desperately want to possess absolute faith and love for You as the most confidential servitor of the Supreme Lord. You alone can mercifully lead me to become a trusted faithful loving dog of Your Divine Grace.
In last several years I have already tasted the sweetness of Your merciful glance upon this undeserving soul. Now I am greedy for more of Your merciful glance upon me to remain forever in the transcendental plane of eternal service to Your eternal mission of eternally liberating the conditioned souls from this world. I am eternally indebted to Your Divine Grace.
I beg to remain the servant of Your servants,
Madhu Pandit Dasa
President, ISKCON Bangalore.
