Viṣṇujana Svāmī

An Authoritative Appreciation on the Appearance Day of
His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

All honor and respect are due unto Your Divine Grace, O representative of Sukadeva Gosvami. "The Supreme Lord is unlimited. Only a very expert personality deserves to understand this knowledge in spiritual values, and that also when retired from the activities of material happiness. Therefore, those who are not so well placed on account of being attached to material qualities may be shown the ways of transcendental realization by Your Goodness by describing the transcendental activities of the Supreme Lord." Sri Krsna, Your lotus feet exude a nectar which is kept in the heart of Your pure devotee, Srila Prabhupada, who has opened that heart of devotion to the Western world. Let the scholars and rascals claim to know the Unlimited by their limited brains, but for myself I accept Sri Krsna's verdict in His Bhagavad-gita (Chapter 12.6-7): "For one who worships Me, giving up all his activities unto Me, and always being devoted to Me without deviation, engaged in devotional service and always meditating on Me: who has fixed his mind upon Me, O son of Prtha-for him I am the swift deliverer from the ocean of birth and death." Srila Prabhupada is the rare one out of many, many thousands, and therefore I take this opportunity to surrender this God-given life of mine with its attributes and deficiencies unto the shelter of the most expert personality His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, my spiritual master. Please don't think that surrender is an empty statement of sentiment. This is condemned in scripture. Nor should you think that the spiritual master is meant for absurd inquiry. No, Srila Prabhupada is accepted on the authority of sadhu and sastra. Sadhu means saintly persons who successfully taught Krsna consciousness by example in full accordance with the revealed scripture. The saintly personalities who form an unbroken chain of disciplic succession down to Srila Prabhupada are herein listed.

It would be impossible for anyone to develop all these qualities one by one, but the pure sadhu automatically exhibits all good qualities due to his becoming a pure devotee of the Lord. I have developed no qualities but firm faith that by association with my spiritual master, His orders and words, I must soon be cured of my material affinity.

Sadhu, sastra. Sastra means scripture, specifically the Vedic literature in which the Bhagavad-gita is contained. The speaker is Lord Sri Krsna, who is affirmed in all the Vedas to be the Para-brahman Supreme Personality of Godhead from whom many emanations expand. In Chapter Eighteen, verse 65, Sri Krsna states the qualities of one who is surrendered fully: "Always think of Me. Become My devotee. Worship Me, and offer you homage unto Me. The result is that you will come to Me without fail. I promise you this because you are My very dear friend." And in the following verses Sri Krsna specifically describes my spiritual master. "For anyone who explains this supreme secret to the devotee, devotional service is guaranteed, and at the end he will come back to Me. There is no servant in the world more dear to Me than he, nor will there ever be one more dear." (Bg. 18.68-69) His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada has come to the western world at the age of seventy, enduring tribulations of social red tape and his own health. Still, with total devotion to the order of His Guru Maharaja, Srila Prabhupada has opened His heart to the western world and is thereby overflooding us with His divine example of devotional service. Even before His Divine Grace arrived on the western shore, three volumes of Bhagavatam, the spotless Purana, were published by His Divine Grace. What a boundless blessing to the English speaking world. And in just four years Srila Prabhupada has translated and published ten full books in which the Personality of Godhead with all transcendental paraphernalia is authoritatively revealed and the means for attaining pure loving devotional service is scientifically presented. Herein is a list: 1. Bhagavad-gita As It Is, 2. Sri Īsopanisad, 3. Teachings of Lord Caitanya, 4. The Nectar of Devotion, 5. Krsna Book. And these are just a few of the valuable gifts Srila Prabhupada is giving to the spiritually poverty-stricken West.

Regarding temples where everyone can see and take an active part in devotional activities, Srila Prabhupada has founded branches of the International Society for Krsna Consciousness in major cities around the world where the resident students are joyfully and faithfully executing the regulative principles of devotional service imparted by His Divine Grace. Another reading in the Bhagavad-gita, Chapter Nine, verses 13-14, says, "O son of Prtha, those who are not deluded, the great souls, are under the protection of the divine nature. They are fully engaged in devotional service because they know Me as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, original and inexhaustible. They are always engaged in chanting My glories. Endeavoring with great determination, offering homage unto Me, they worship Me with devotion." These verses confirm the order Srila Prabhupada to all His students to always chant and hear the glories of the Lord. This order was propounded by Lord Sri Krsna Caitanya who prophesized, "In as many towns and villages as there are on earth, this Hare Krsna will be chanted and heard." And Srila Prabhupada is fulfilling the desire of the Lord by sending His disciples chanting into the teeming masses. Srila Prabhupada Himself has recorded numerous songs and record albums which are played worldwide.

No one can deny these facts of Srila Prabhupada's activities, nor can anyone refute these verses from scripture which confirm Srila Prabhupada's great mission and personality. Nor can anyone be blind to the super-excellent qualifications of the saintly teachers who have imparted these pure teachings. Taking all these facts into consideration, along with the purifying association of Srila Prabhupada, which has obviously changed the disgraced lives of myself and hundreds of others into purity, who would be such a fool as not to give praise, and even more, to give one's life in the service of such a spiritual master? His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada is the only propounder of Lord Caitanya's holy sahkirtana worldwide congregational chanting. Such an extraordinarily qualified personality as Srila Prabhupada must be accepted as the captain of the ship of devotional service which is just suitable for crossing over this difficult ocean of Kali which deteriorates all the good qualities of the human being. And I, Visnujana Svami, do offer prostrated obeisances before the holy picture of my beloved spiritual master and pray only for the strength to overcome any hindrances in executing Srila Prabhupada's Divine command.

Chant Hare Krsna.

Visnujana Svami