Gour-Hari Dāsa

We All Go Back to Godhead

My devotional service is cleaning the altar. I take care of my Deities and make garlands for Srila Prabhupada. My spiritual master is pure. He gives flowers when You give Him flowers. I chant rounds. I serve Srila Prabhupada fruits and incense. You are very Krsna conscious. When You touched my head, it felt as soft as a rose petal. The first time I saw You I cried a little bit because I want to go back to Godhead.

All glories to You, my dear sweet master who has kindly lifted me from the pits of heathen existence and placed me so neatly in Krsna's eternal abode. My dear father, You have made me dance and sing and rejoice like a little boy shouting Hari, Hare Nama. You are my puppeteer, breathing life into my ears, all glories to those strings of life that are pulling this wretched creature from the muck to Godhead.

All glories to Your causeless mercy, which covers the three worlds and is discussed most intimately by the gopis themselves.

All glories to the dearest teacher, who has come to these materialistic, godless countries and proven, by His mere presence, that God is alive in the hearts of all living entities. Your teachings have relieved them once and for all of their atheistic burdens. Hari Bol, awaken to the holy name. A thousand times all glories to Sri Guru, who has forced me to love Him.

My dear father, I am the most fallen being, the most difficult and polluted, and yet, although You know me in this condition of life, You bestowed upon me the gift of grace, that shining jewel of bhakti.

My repeated obeisances to the dust that Your lotus feet kick to the winds. Even the demigods themselves relish after Your dust. You are the most worshipable servant. All glories to You, Srila Prabhupada.

Thank You very much.

Gour-Hari Dasa, July 30, 1970

(ISKCON San Francisco)