Saraladevī Dāsī

Offering of Worship to His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

I offer my most humble obeisances at the holy lotus feet of my spiritual master, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, who is very dear to Lord Krsna on this earth, having taken shelter of the transcendental Lord, and who, as the servant of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Gosvami Prabhupada, is preaching the message of Lord Caitanya and thus riding the Western world of voidness and impersonalism. I offer repeated obeisances unto his lotus feet.

Lord Caitanya confirms that one travels through all 8,400,00 species of life, birth after birth after miserable birth, until he is somehow fortunate enough to gain the association of a bona fide spiritual master. I am praying to Lord Krsna that now He has given me the opportunity, I don't ruin it by offensive behavior. Srila Prabhupada has written, "To think of becoming a fool is the real qualification for a bona fide disciple. As soon as one thinks that he has become wiser than the spiritual master, one is surely doomed. We should remain everlastingly a fool before the spiritual master-not artificially, but feelingly-and then we can make real progress." yasya prasadad bhagvat-prasado: By the mercy of Krsna one gets a bona fide spiritual master, and by the mercy of the bona fide spiritual master one is benedicted by the mercy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but if we are not careful to receive this mercy in a humble state of mind and with all due respect for its divine source, we will again fall from Krsna consciousness and become absorbed in the material atmosphere.

Srila Prabhupada is empowered by the Supreme Personality of Godhead to distribute unlimited spiritual mercy to everyone, but we must be willing to receive it. We must develop that qualification. Ye yatha mam prapadyante: Krsna reciprocates with His devotees in proportion to their individual degree of surrender unto Him. The spiritual master is God's own self, as confirmed by Srila Rūpa Gosvami, and if the spiritual master is pleased upon us then our success in going back to Godhead is assured. We must try to render pure devotional service, free from mental speculation and personal self-interested motives, at the lotus feet of the spiritual master. Saksad hari: saksad means directly, and hari means God. The spiritual master is directly the representative of God, and He is to be worshipped as such. The instruction of the spiritual master coming through the bona fide parampara is all perfect, and we have only to accept it in this way. Krsna says in Bhagavad-gita, "One who executes his duties according to My injunctions and who follows this teaching faithfully becomes free from the bondage of fruitive reactions."(Bg. 3.31) We are all undergoing material misery as a reaction to our fruitive actions and it is [text missing]

I offer my respectful obeisances unto the lotus feet of my beloved Spiritual Master who is so kindly preaching the message of Lord Caitanya and saving the conditioned souls from being doomed. It is through Your causeless mercy that ALL my doubts are destroyed and gradually I am becoming a civilized human being. O dearest Prabhupada, You are the perfect living example of what we can achieve in this lifetime by chanting the Hare Krsna mantra and rendering devotional service unto Sri Krsna. All glories unto the lotus feet of my Spiritual Master, who is a bona fide representative of Hari.

Eternally, Your loving servant,

Saraladevi Dasi

(ISKCON Los Angeles)