ISKCON—Tokyo

The best use of these insignificant and conditioned brains is the attempt to praise you, Srila Prabhupada. As a child paints a picture in nursery school, so we humbly offer our stunted utterances. Our song is the same. Sri Srimad Bhaktivedanta Gosvami Maharaja Prabhupada:

"Lord Krsna says he who takes the task of delivering the fallen souls, is the most dear to Him. At every second You are setting examples for the world to follow."

"Being blessed by the Lotus Feet of Sri Rūpa and Sanatana You are extricating souls from the lowest and most miserable condition of life, simply by Your offenceless singing of the sweet names of Hari."

We fools have jumped at the poison before our eyes and are being carried by the currents of this world. From this fearful situation, who is it that has offered us aid?"

"In six years time the cry of a generation has become fulfilled … There is the desire to perform tapaḥ and become niskinca in service to You."

"A pure devotee of the Lord who came to America's shores at 70 years old and picked the flower of her youths. A crime for which both Socrates and Christ, each in their time, paid for with their lives."

"In this material world, for millions and millions of life-times, everyone is looking for a desire tree. At last such a desire tree has made His appearance on this earth planet. You are fulfilling the desires of all Your disciples. You are giving the highest, most precious gift-Love of God, krsna-prema."

"I must go (to Japan and Hawaii). I have promised and they will be disappointed if I shouldn't come." Though tired in body, amid bureaucrat obstinacy in Singapore, You said this, though L.A. was an easy choice. You instructed us in Tokyo. You do not care for any easy life.

All Glories to You, O jet-age Parivrajakacarya."

Odyssey-(noun) a long wandering marked by many changes of fortune.

After the rain the air is quiet. This is the satisfaction of all entities. They are all searching for fulfillment, in so many forms of energy. Within the forest, extending over these hills, are countless entities holding to countless forms through which they hold their pleasure. Unimaginable is this eternal process of labor enacted as reality, strained as it is by its harsh concomitant conditions. Why are we lingering here so long?

Trees wait through the drought for the blessing of water, Every year they wait in this way. For lack of intelligence and knowledge, we are waiting here. Our perverse nature, having chosen its preference as enjoyer of the body, continues this preference in a situation holding so many hopes for joy. But we have become slaves in our act of freedom. The eternity we have been here we cannot even dare to remember.

Having no idea of the magnitude and intricacy of existence, not caring for knowledge, I was offered freely, no cause discernable, no qualification standing, the diamond. But because I was blinded, because I was a fool, I took it as an ordinary stone. Why did I take a rock? Only because it was given. With no qualification except that I accepted, I have finally begun the awakening and recollection from the most offensive dream. Whose mercy lifted me out of the catastrophe that I just deserved?

It is not the complacent suffering we thought it was. It is the fire of desire and object of desire unleashed, devouring this whole universal existence. There is no way out. It is all afire. But the rain extinguished the blaze. Suffering so long, the true watering and nourishing, education and growing are flourishing in the rainfall for whose taste we have always been anxious. The stone became a diamond, blindness was cut by its pure, piercing light, the fool was led by the hand. Who could have been tolerant to the ignorant, hostile and perverse?

The rain has cleared the air. In the moistened spring earth the seeds begin to grow. The mist shifts and lingers in the valleys. Now the dispelling dawn comes upon the hill. And it has entered into the window where I am standing. In Vrndavana Sri Sri Radha-Krsna dance eternally. Who has brought Them here?

The morning prayer begins. Samsara-davanala-liḍha-loka … We begin to glorify. Kartala and mrdahga join the voices. The voices praise. Vande guroḥ sri-caranaravindam … Unto my spiritual master, full with mercy, who has offered causelessly the unrelenting mercy of Sri Sri Radha-Krsna to the most fallen of souls. I can do nothing but this. What value are my own words?

My spiritual master just iterates the eternal function: He is just acting out the infinite, incomprehensible love of God.

ISKCON Tokyo