Bombay

Dear Srila Prabhupada,

Your appearance day is the most historic event in the history of man. In the material world everyone takes birth to enjoy with lust, desire, and anger. Everyone wants to become Krsna. Everyone is born envious of Krsna. But your appearance is just to glorify Krsna, as Lord Caitanya did.

patrapatra-vicara nahi, nahi sthanasthana
yei yahha paya, tahha kare prema-dana

"In distributing love of Godhead, Caitanya Mahaprabhu and His associates did not consider who was a fit candidate and who was not, nor where such distribution should or should not take place. They made no conditions. Wherever they got the opportunity, the members of the Panca-tattva distributed love of Godhead."

You are Lord Caitanya's most confidential associate, and have appeared to fulfill His mission. Caitanya Mahaprabhu's mission was to spread Krsna consciousness all over the world. "Prthivite ache yata nagaradi grama," in every town and village. Therefore you are Lord Caitanya's most confidential servant, because you are doing this work for Him. Many, many great scholars, sages and devotees have appeared from time to time on our Gauḍiya Vaisnava line and elsewhere, but none of them can be considered as great as Your Divine Grace.

The purpose of the advent of Lord Caitanya was not to prove the supremacy of Vedic scholarship or the performance of pious activity, nor did he come to do any mundane welfare work for the people. His philosophy and samkirtan movement are not meant for only brahmanas, ksatriyas, or the intellectual class of men. The real purpose of Lord Caitanya's appearance is, as Narottama dasa has said, "Patita-pavana-hetu tava avatara;" simply to deliver the fallen souls. Who has delivered so many fallen souls from such a condition as you? In our disciplic line there have been many great acaryas; the six Goswamis, Visvanatha Cakravarti, Bhaktivinode Thakura, etc., who have written many books about devotional service that are as great as sruti and smrti. The Goswamis of Vrndavana were authorized on different rasas of bhakti. They were great mahabhagavatas. Indeed they were exalted personalities. But as far as delivering fallen souls, no one can equal Your Divine Grace. Therefore, you are not only our acarya for this age. Yuga-acarya. You are cent per cent the perfection of Lord Caitanya's teachings. You are the peak. No one can ever approach such a platform. In fact, Lord Caitanya is letting you do more than He Himself did 500 years ago. Of trillions of living entities He has chosen you to take Krsna consciousness to every town and village. Therefore, this samkirtana movement is more potent and powerful today than it was when the Lord was here.

In this kali-yuga everyone is full of lust, anger and greed, being engrossed in the modes of passion and ignorance. We, all your disciples, are also born in that same ocean of material desires. We have been suffering in the hellish darkness of the material worlds since time immemorial. But you are that beam of light, pure and transcendental to this godless world, glowing with love of God. All the evils we know are completely unknown to you, and all of the bliss that you are immersed in is alien to us. And yet you have so kindly extended your all-merciful hand to pull us out from this dark well of material life. As Narottama dasa Thakur has said:

cakhu-dan dilo jei, janme janme prabhu sei,
divya jnan hrde prokasito prema-bhakti jaha hoite
avidya vinasa jate, vede gay jahara carito

"The spiritual master opened my darkened eyes and fills my heart with transcendental knowledge. He is my Lord birth after birth. From him ecstatic prema emanates; by him ignorance is destroyed. The Vedic scriptures sing of his character."

Lord Caitanya delivered Jagai and Madhai but left millions of Jagais and Madhais for you. Just as it is said in the Caitanya-caritamrta:

saj-jana, durjana, pahgu, jaḍa, andha-gana
prema-vanyaya ḍubaila jagatera jana

"The Krsna consciousness movement will inundate the entire world and drown everyone, whether one be a gentleman, a rogue or even lame, invalid or blind."

Under your divine guidance, the whole world is being inundated by your ISKCON. You have thus established the truth of the wonderful vision of sastra. You have not only delivered all your disciples from the clutches of sinful life (meat-eating, intoxication, illicit sex etc.), but have also inculcated in them divine qualities such as self-control, austerity, simplicity, non-violence, truthfulness, cleanliness, etc. Who but your divine self could have brought about such astounding changes? As Narottama said in his prayer to a vaisnava:

jahara nikate gele papa dūre jay
emona doyala prabhu keba kotha pay

"Whose association other than yours can cause all the sinful reactions of the most sinful man to run away? Who is so merciful as Your Divine Grace? Search as I may, I cannot find him?"

So you are the greatest vaisnava, because you are the most magnanimous, and because you are benedicting us with the highest perfection; prema bhakti.

You are so kind and humble that you do not take any credit for all your achievements. Taking unflinching shelter at the lotus feet of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati and Srila Rūpa Goswami, you give all the credit to them. Your guru-maharaja is now glorified all over the world. We who are so polluted by the Kali-yuga and have nevertheless been accepted by you, simply pray earnestly to the Supreme Lord Caitanya and the six Goswamis to help us in glorifying Your Divine Grace all over the world.

Here in India especially there are so many rascals, so-called swamis, yogis, avataras, etc. who have become popular. Even the gentlemen are cheated by such imposters, who are simply interested in name, fame, money and women. In every Indian house there are pictures of these so-called gods. Because of so many hoaxes and stunts, intelligent people have lost faith in their own religion and culture. They are blindly running towards the western materialistic civilization. We want to restore their faith by showing the beauty of Vedic culture and vaisnava life. We want to install a picture of Your Divine Grace, the only perfect saint alive today, in each of these houses. We want to create a revolution in the impious lives of the inhabitants of Bharat Bhūmi. We are convinced that only your mercy can do it. These are the people who are most misguided. They are actually poisoned; we must bring them back to their normal healthy conditions. Please give us sufficient strength to fulfill this mission. Their miserable conditions have left them callous and without trust for anyone. They run around like dogs barking at and biting one another. But your transcendental movement is for everyone. Just as Lord Caitanya devised many tricks to engage even stubborn, hard-hearted people like the impersonalists, fruitive workers, false logicians, blasphemers, non-devotees and the lowest among the student community, so you are also planning many tricks to conquer these atheistic offenders.

They may have many ideas about your disciples, but as soon as they see you they immediately bow down. Everyone likes you and that is our only hope. If they recognize you, they will forget everyone else. Because you are spiritual, you can actually convince them with spiritual truth. Everyone else is material and therefore can impart only darkness in the name of light. Who can stand against you? Your patience and determination are limitless. One day, on your morning walk, a man started blaspheming you, saying that you are always criticizing everyone else. Your disciples were there with you, and they were going to throw him away, but you stopped them, smiled and said; "I am just saying what Krsna has said in Bhagavad-gita." After a while the man came to his senses. He bowed down and touched your feet, and you accepted him. You are causelessly merciful because of being always absorbed in love of Radha-Krsna. You are on the transcendental platform, free from anxieties. You have no business dealings with mundane people; you only deal with them to show them your causeless mercy. "Somehow they must become attracted to Krsna." This is your only concern.

The transcendental name of Krsna being vibrated through your lips surpasses all the singing of the gandharvas, the celestial singers. As soon as the Name Krsna is mentioned to you, your face beams like the morning sun. O Srila Prabhupada, when we will deserve to be your disciples? When will we give up our petty little worlds? When shall we be allowed entry into the world of the paramahamsas with Your Divine Grace? We cannot even solve the petty differences between ourselves. Even after hearing so much from you, still we do not understand the value of the soul, especially the soul who has surrendered to Krsna. Nor have we any appreciation of our Godbrothers.

But you have started this movement form zero. Long before starting ISKCON you struggled unsuccessfully for many years just to find one person who could learn pure Krsna consciousness from you. Even though you now have thousands of disciples, you never lose sight of the value of each and every one of them. Each of them, disciples and karmis alike, receive boundless mercy form you. You do not look at anyone's faults. Someone may be 99% in maya and one percent in Krsna consciousness. You just look at his 1% and immediately devise a trick to expand his service.

My dear father, on this day of your divine appearance we make a meager offer of love at your lotus feet, and beg that you accept it. We pray for the strength required to recognize our godbrothers and godsisters as your loving children. We beg for the cooperative spirit to push on this movement throughout and beyond this world. We pray that Krsna may give us the intelligence to act for your pleasure.

This material existence is a nightmare, Srila Prabhupada. Please, we do not want to come back here. You have bought us this far, now please take us further away from this hellish place, back to where the Supreme Attractive Person is playing upon His flute, enjoying eternal sports with the gopis. Please take us back to Krsna.

sri-guru karuna-sindhu, adhama janara bandhu,
lokanath lokera jivana ha ha prabhu koro doya,
deho more pada-chaya, ebe jasa ghusuk tribhuvana

"Our spiritual master is the ocean of mercy, the friend of the poor, and the lord and master of the devotees. O master! Please be merciful unto me. Give me the shade of your lotus feet. Your fame is spread all over the three worlds."

Giriraj dasa brahmacari / Bhakta Amar / Chaitanyagur dasa brahmacari / Bhakta Sevakram / Sridhar dasa brahmacari / Bhakta Suresh / Lokanath dasa brahmacari / Bhakta Pandurahga / Tatpara dasa brahmacari / Bhakta Sudhakar / Patit Uddharan dasa brahmacari / Bhakta Dilabar / Vilvamahgala dasa brahmacari / Bhakta Krsna dasa / Hari dasa brahmacari / Bhakta Kardamamuni dasa / Ekanatha dasa brahmacari / Pitambar dasa / Nistraigunya dasa brahmacari / Palika dasi / Nava Yogendra dasa brahmacari / Aditya dasi / Asurakulanasana dasa brahmacari / Ambika dasi / Vaikunthaguna dasa brahmacari / Ramiya dasi / Muktananda dasa brahmacari / Indureka dasi / Krsnagraja dasa brahmacari / Kastari dasi / Sutalesh dasa brahmacari / Manimanjari dasi / Anirdreshyavapu dasa brahmacari / Rahga dasi / Sheshmukhi dasi / Manasvi dasa adhikari / Iksakurani devi dasi / Jagat Purusha dasa adhikari / Gandiva devi dasi / Vishala dasa adhikari / Vishalimi devi dasi / Jashomatinandana dasa adhikari / Radha Kunḍa devi dasi / Manmohan dasa adhikari

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