Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Appearance Day, Hindi and English – February 15, 1971, Gorakhpur

Guest: [Hindi].

[08:28]

Prabhupada: [Hindi] So you can speak something in English... And some of the messages... And, first of all you speak something.

Tamal Krsna: [Chants Srila Prabhupada Pranati]

I am offering my most respectful and humble obeisances unto the lotus feet of my Guru Maharaja who is most dear unto Lord Krsna for he has taken complete shelter of the Lord's transcendental lotus feet. We are offering our respectful and humble obeisances unto you Srila Prabhupada because you are the servant of Sarasvati Gosvami and you are so kindly delivering the message of Lord Caitanya-deva throughout the western countries and you are ridding them of impersonalism and voidism.

By the grace of our Guru Maharaja we have somehow been able to hear this message of Bhagavad-gita and Srimad-Bhagavatam. Before meeting Srila Prabhupada our lives were very much enveloped in materialism and we were simply calculating how we could become advanced materially, thinking that we could become happy in life. But anyone who has tried simply to become happy through materialistic means knows that it is a very difficult path. In fact it is impossible to become happy materially alone. So by the grace of our Guru Maharaja somehow we have been fortunate enough to hear this message of Krsna consciousness.

Srila Prabhupada came just in the nick of time because for many of us we had become very much frustrated in our materialistic endeavours and Prabhupada delivered this message of Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Caitanya Mahaprabhu's message is for everyone and it does not matter whether he is from India, or whether he is from the United States, whether he is from the Soviet Union. Caitanya Mahaprabhu's message is that everyone has a relationship with God, with Krsna.

But that relationship has become forgotten and so it must be reawakened. Just like everyone, everyone is originally Krsna conscious. But this Krsna consciousness has been covered, just as the sun is sometimes becomes covered by the clouds. But still the sun is there, in the same way we are originally God conscious or Krsna consciousness. But we have forgotten that original consciousness. So Caitanya Mahaprabhu's instructions are for everyone, he says:

In this Age of Kali the most effective way, or to uncover our original consciousness is by chanting this Hare Krishna mantra. And you can see from us here that it is not something artificial. Just like we are coming from western countries, we had perhaps never heard of Lord Krsna five years ago. But simply by chanting this Hare Krishna mantra our relationship with Krsna, our remembrance of Krsna has been revived. So everyone has within him this natural love of God and simply it has to be revived and the process is this chanting of Hare Krishna mantra.

Today is a very special day for us because it is the appearance day of Sri Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Gosvami Maharaja. Our spiritual master's Guru Maharaja. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta is the founder acarya of the Gauḍiya Matha. The Gauḍiya Matha has so many branches throughout India and he is the most stalwart acarya since the time of Sri Rūpa Gosvamiji, Sri Jiva Gosvami. Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Maharaja has given our Guru Maharaja the mission of preaching Krsna consciousness in the English-speaking countries. And so it is by his grace also that we have had the chance to receive this Krsna consciousness.

I would like to read these prayers which were written by my spiritual master Sri A. C. Bhaktivedanta Svami Prabhupada on the Vyasa-pūja day of his Guru Maharaja. Prabhupada wrote:

Adore ye all,
The happy day.
Blessed than Heaven,
Sweeter than May.
When He appeared at Puri,
The holy place,
My Lord and Master
His Divine Grace.

Oh! my Master
The evangelic angel.
Give us thy light,
Lift up thy candle.
Struggle for existence
A Human race,
The only hope
His Divine Grace.

Misled we are
All going astray,
Save us Lord
Our fervent pray,
Wonder thy ways
To turn our face
Adore thy feet
Your Divine Grace.

Forgotten Krishna
We fallen souls.
Paying most heavy
The illusion's toll.
Darkness around
All untraced,
The only hope
His Divine Grace.

Absolute is sentient
Thou hast proved.
Impersonal calamity
Thou hast moved.
This gives us a life
Anew and fresh.
Worship thy feet
Your Divine Grace.

Had you not come
Who had told,
The message of Krishna
Forceful and bold,
That's your right
You have the mace.
Save me a fallen
Your Divine Grace.

The line of service
As drawn by you,
Is pleasing and healthy
Like morning dew.
The oldest of all
But in new dress
Miracle done
Your Divine Grace.

[Pause] [end]