Ahmedabad

AHMEDABAD

nama om visnu-padaya krsna-presthaya bhū-tale
srimate bhaktivedanta-svamin iti namine

namas te sarasvate deve gaura-vani-pracarine
nirvisesa-sūnyavadi-pasatya-desa-tarine

Dearest Srila Prabhupada,

Please accept our worthless prostrate obeisances. All glories to your divine appearance and all glories to your divine disappearance. Our lives and hearts were as dry as a desert and were hankering for happiness and satisfaction like a fish on the land. In such a state you appeared as a merciful angel and filled our hearts with supreme bliss and satisfaction. How can we forget our miserable condition before taking shelter at your lotus feet, which are saturated with transcendental love of God? It is a fact that you are present by your instructions and by your books, but it is also a fact that we can never forget your transcendental smiling lotus face, which can pacify the entire universe.

Once when Lord Krsna was displaying His transcendental pastimes in Vrndavana in the midst of thousands of gopis, He chose to disappear from amongst them, leaving the gopis in complete agony and frustration. The gopis started searching for Him in desperation, asking all the trees and the creepers, the flowers and the cows if they knew where Krsna went. At that time Krsna assumed the form of Narayana. They offered their obeisances to Narayana and continued looking for Krsna. Similarly, we know our Srila Prabhupada in his transcendental human form, and wherever we are we want to associate with your form as Srila Prabhupada. Whatever little practice of devotion or spiritual life we have is due to you, Srila Prabhupada. We did not know how much we would miss you until you actually left us physically.

Indeed, who can measure your glories or who can even attempt to begin appreciating them? Maybe Lord Siva or Sukadeva Gosvami or Naradaji knows your glory. I can just imagine how gloriously all the demigods in the heavenly planets must have worshiped you when you left for your real home of Krsnaloka. All the great personalities like Indra, Candra, Ganesa, Varuna and all the great sages like Brghu, Marici, Vyasadeva, Narada and Brahmaji must have showered incessant flowers and offered the most wonderful garlands and the most exalted worship on your way home. And Lord Siva must have danced in ecstasy at your glorious departure. And we cannot even imagine how much love and affection you must have received in Goloka Vrndavana. Certainly you did not belong to this material world. Perhaps you are a cowherd boy or a manjari or gopi, but because of your intense love for the living entities, and intense mercy, Krsna chose to send you to this world. Caitanya Mahaprabhu was addressed as maha-vadanyavatara by Srila Rūpa Gosvami. But you are the personification of Lord Caitanya's magnanimity, therefore you are the supreme grace of Lord Sri Krsna.

There is no person superior to you in the entire cosmic creation because you are the most beloved of Krsna. You are the sum total of the demigods. Just as Uddhava says in the Srimad-Bhagavatam (11.29.6):

naivopayanty apacitim kavayas tavesa
brahmayusapi krtam rddha-mudaḥ smarantaḥ
yo 'ntar bahis tanu-bhrtam asubham vidhunvann
acarya-caitya-vapusa sva-gatim vyanakt

"O my Lord! Transcendental poets and experts in spiritual science could not fully express their indebtedness to You, even if they were endowed with the prolonged lifetime of Brahma, for You appear in two features-externally as the acarya and internally as the Supersoul-to deliver the embodied living being by directing him how to come to You."

We have been wandering in the material universe for millions of lifetimes and there was no chance of deliverance. Who but Your Divine Grace could have delivered us? We do not have to go anywhere to see the proof of your potency, just as King Mucukunda says in the Srimad-Bhagavatam (10.51.53).

bhavapavargobhramato yada bhavej
janasya tarhy acyuta sat-samagamaḥ
sat-sahgamo yarhi tadaiva sad-gatau
paravarese tvayi jayate ratiḥ

"O my Lord! O infallible Supreme Person! When a person wandering throughout the universes becomes eligible for liberation from material existence, he gets an opportunity to associate with devotees. When he associates with devotees, his attraction for You is awakened. You are the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the highest goal of the supreme devotees and the Lord of the universe."

Certainly you have the capacity to deliver the entire world. Unfortunate the people have become so sinful and degraded that even though you are distributing this highest benediction-love of Krsna-so freely, they do not want to take it because they are so blind. Otherwise your very appearance in this material world has made the whole world auspicious. We are so fortunate to have lived in this miserable material world while you were here. Even a moment's association with an exalted personality like yourself is beyond comparison to any other benediction in this world, as is said in the Srimad-Bhagavatam (1.18.13):

tulayama lavenapi na svargam napunar-bhavam
bhagavat-sahgi-sahgasya martyanam kim utasisaḥ

"The value of a moment's association with a pure devotee of the Lord cannot even be compared to the attainment of heavenly planets or liberation from matter, and what to speak of worldly benedictions in the form of material prosperity, which is for those who are meant for death."

There is no other way for conditioned living entities to get out of the material world but to take shelter of a maha-bhagavata; and you are not just a pure devotee, but you are the most beloved devotee of Lord Sri Krsna and Lord Caitanya. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu Himself carried out His mission only in India and delivered one Jagai and Madhai; but He deputed you to spread His mission throughout the world and deliver thousands of Jagais and Madhais.

From the very beginning of life you displayed symptoms of pure love. Even when you were a child, while flying a kite you would pray to Krsna, "My dear Krsna, please let my kite fly high in the sky." When you were a young man, under the shelter of yogamaya, you appeared to be interested in Gandhi's independence movement, but as soon as you met your eternal father, His Divine Grace Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Gosvami Maharaja, immediately you manifested your real self. The world could not recognize you then as the would-be deliverer of the world, but Bhaktisiddhanta Maharaja, being the direct representative of Caitanya Mahaprabhu, immediately recognized you and officially gave you the mission of delivering the Western countries, for which you appeared on the planet.

Many of Bhaktisiddhanta's disciples were brahmacaris and sannyasis, but you were a grhastha. Once one brahmacari Godbrother criticized you, "O Abhaya Babu! Why are you entangled in family life? Why don't you give up and take sannyasa?" Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Maharaja overheard this, and he chastised the brahmacari, "He is a thousand times greater than you. One day he will do something very wonderful and everyone will see." Thus you kept the words of your Guru Maharaja and spread the holy name of Krsna around the world. That is the perfection of a disciple. Your determination and faith are unparalleled in the history of mankind. And we consider ourselves so fortunate to have taken shelter at the lotus feet of such a unique acarya as yourself. Your whole life, right from childhood till disappearance, is as divine as the pastimes of Caitanya Mahaprabhu.

Once in Bombay you were preaching to us, "The preacher devotee is the most dear to Krsna because he is taking a challenge and he is taking risk for Krsna. Someone may honor him or dishonor him, he does not care." Then you went on describing how much you had to struggle to preach. You said, "I have not seen left or right, I have just gone ahead! I practically walked through fire for preaching." That was your specialty. You always thought big and aimed big. Once I said, "Srila Prabhupada, probably you did not imagine yourself that your attempt would be so successful. So many thousands of devotees, so many temples, so many activities." Your Divine Grace said, "No, I always had this idea in my mind. I always wanted that so many people may join this sahkirtana movement and a big worldwide Krsna conscious organization may start."

You have always struggled and always came out triumphant. The Bombay temple is the symbol of the struggle and triumph. But you are so renounced that you left just before it opened. Now the glorious chapter of your achievements in India has started. Everyone is seeing these temples and realizing your glories. Here in Gujarat now we have started developing this farm, and maybe if you would bless, we will build something in the city also. You have done everything you could to preach. Now we have to follow in your footsteps and continue your mission.

Please give us the strength to always remember your lotus feet and your wonderful activities. Our lives have become auspicious just by having you as our eternal spiritual father. We do not have any other ambition in life. Lord Krsna has fulfilled our life by giving us the shade of your lotus feet. What more can we expect?

sthanabhilasi tapasi sthito 'ham
tvam praptavan deva-munindra-guhyam
kacam vicinvann api divya-ratnam
svamin krartho 'smi varam na yace

(When he was being offered a benediction by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Dhruva Maharaja said:) "O my Lord, because I was seeking an opulent material position, I was performing severe types of penance and austerity. Now I have gotten You, who are very difficult for the great demigods, saintly persons and kings to attain. I was searching after a piece of glass, but instead I have found a most valuable jewel. Therefore I am so satisfied that I do not wish to ask any benediction from You." (Hari-bhakti-sudhodaya)

However, we have only one ambition. Just as you have glorified your Guru Maharaja's name all over the world, and just as you have pacified his heart by carrying out his order in completeness, let us also glorify your name and pacify your heart. We certainly have no qualifications to have such an exalted position to be your disciples, but somehow or other we have been awarded this benediction. So please also give us the strength to deserve this great fortune. We pray unto your lotus feet just as Sanatana Gosvami prays unto the lotus feet of Krsna:

na prema sravanadi-bhaktir api va yogo 'thava vaisnavo
jnanam va subha-karma va kiyad aho saj-jatir apy asti va
hinarthadhika-sadhake tvayi tathapy acchedya-mūla sati
he gopi-jana-vallabha vyathayate ha ha mad-asaiva mam

"O my Lord, I do not have any love for You, nor am I qualified for discharging devotional service by chanting and hearing. Nor do I possess the mystic power of a Vaisnava, knowledge or pious activities. Nor do I belong to a very high-caste family. On the whole, I do not possess anything. Still, O beloved of the gopis because You bestow Your mercy on the most fallen, I have an unbreakable hope that is constantly in my heart. That hope is giving me pain." (Cc. Madhya 23.29)

Your eternal servants in Ahmedabad,

Yasomatinandana dasa adhikari / Krsna-nama dasa / Vijaya dasa / Caitanya-candra dasa / Rama-Krsnanda dasa / Dayalu Nitai dasa / Rama-Krsna dasa / Bhakta Rama dasa / Bhakta Hrsikesa / Bhakta Paresh / Bhakta Pahkaja / Nandu / Radha-kunda-devi dasi / Rahgavati-devi dasi / Nrsimha-devi dasi / Sundari-devi dasi

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