Cleveland

Dear Godbrothers, Godsisters and friends everywhere,

Please accept our humble obeisances at your feet. All Glories to our ever well-wisher and Divine Master, Srila Prabhupada!

In the ordinary sense, most of us have never met and we probably never will. We have been dispatched by the order of His Divine Grace to all parts of the world and must now bear each other's separation. Yet astonishingly enough our International Society for Krishna Consciousness is somehow existing, and in a most extraordinary, transcendental sense, we all know each other so well. So on this happy and thoughtful occasion, we are actually gathered together on the transcendental platform of bhakti just to offer our sincere obeisances at the lotus feet of our all-conquering Gurudeva, Om Visnu-pada Paramahamsa Parivrajakacarya Sri Srimad Bhaktivedanta Gosvami Maharaja-our dear Srila Prabhupada.

We naturally feel unprepared and unqualified to properly glorify our spiritual master on this holy day of Vyasa Pūja. We must admit regretfully that we possess neither the erudition nor the realization to rival that of the noble acaryas, including Srila Prabhupada Himself, who have paid homage to their own gurus with such sweet and appropriate words of love and genuine surrender. Therefore we first offer our humble obeisances unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Sri Krsna Caitanya, and unto His plenary expansion, Lord Nityananda Prabhu, as well as to His Avatara, Sri Advaita Acarya, His manifest internal energy, Sri Gadadhara Panḍita and His perfect devotee, Sri Srivasa. Our prayer is that we may be able to present some suitable homage at the lotus feet of our spiritual master on this blessed day of his appearance.

As we have it from the unimpeachable teachings of His Divine Grace Thakura Bhaktivinode, the order of the spiritual master is inseparable from the very life and soul of the disciple. This is also confirmed in the Srimad-Bhagavatam: jivanchavo bhagavatahghri-renum na jatu martyo 'bhilabheta yas tu (Bhag. 2.3.23)" A person who has not at any time received the dust of the feet of a pure devotee of the Lord upon his head, certainly is a dead body." For just as a dead body cannot move, so unless one receives the blessings of association with a pure devotee of the Lord, he cannot move along the path to spiritual perfection. And what is that perfection? Etavan eva yajatam iha niḥsreyasodayaḥ bhagavaty acalo bhavo yad bhagavata-sahgataḥ (Bhag. 2.3.11). "All the different kinds of worshippers of multi demigods can attain the highest perfectional benediction, which is spontaneous attraction unflinchingly fixed upon the Supreme Personality of Godhead, only by the association of the pure devotee of the Lord."

My dear Prabhus, how shall we measure the extant to which our consciousness has already been transformed by our brief association with His Divine Grace? We are at once reminded of the proverbial frog in the well who, while trying to estimate the vast extent of the ocean in terms of his domestic units, i.e. well-widths, simply burst in frustration. Shall we say that our present range of vision is twice that of our former days? Four times? One hundred times? No! There is clearly no comparing the dark, narrow well of material existence with the unlimited vistas of devotional service which are now opened before us by his causeless mercy. Tulayama lavenapi na svargam napunar-bhavam bhagavat-sahgi-sahgasya martyanam kim-utasisaḥ (Bhag. 1.18.13) "The value of a moment's association with the devotee of the Lord cannot 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." Just see how our lives have changed, my dear friends. Once, we accepted as axiomatic truth that the crowning glory of human life was none other than the base animal propensities enacted liberally and free from the burden of conscience. Indeed, we were then prepared to defend the society of dogs and hogs against all philosophical attacks from more pious, thoughtful men or the different scriptures. Echoing the raucous sentiments of the multi-media "gurus", we were prepared to stamp out the present corrupt regime, and to replace it with a full-fledged society of mongrels. Such was the nature of our intelligence. Just see how wonderfully we have been reformed. Yat pada samsrayaḥ sūta munayaḥ prasamayanaḥ sadyaḥ punanty upasprstaḥ svar-dhunyapo' nusevaya, (Bhag. 1.1.15) "O Sūta, those great sages who have completely taken shelter of the lotus feet of the Lord can at once sanctify those who come in touch with them, whereas the waters of the Ganges can sanctify only after prolonged use."

Now our position is the most auspicious. For we have been given the chance, without qualifications, to render devotional service unto the lotus feet of Lord Krsna's most confidential servant, Srila Prabhupada. Susrūsoḥ sraddadhanasya vasudeva-katha-ruciḥ syan mahatsevaya vipraḥ punya tirtha-nisevanat (Bhag. 1.2.16) "O twice-born sages, by serving those devotees who are completely freed from all vice, great service is done. By such service, one gains the affinity for hearing the messages of Vasudeva." Nasta-prayesv adhadresu nityam bhagavata-sevaya bhagvaty uttama-sloke bhaktir bhavati naisthiki (Bhag. 1.2.18) "By regularly hearing the Bhagavatam (ie. the messages of Vasudeva") and rendering service unto the pure devotee, all that is troublesome to the heart is practically destroyed, and loving service unto the glorious Lord, who is praised with transcendental songs is established as an irrevocable fact. " In this way our lives will know perfection. Dhautatma purusaḥ krsna pada-mūlam na muncati mukta-sarva-pariklesaḥ panthaḥ sva-saranam yatha. (Bhag. 2.8.6)"A pure devotee of the Lord, whose heart is once cleansed by the process of devotional service, never relinquishes the lotus feet of Lord Krsna because they fully satisfy him, as the traveler is satisfied at home after a troubled journey."

So on this Vyasa Pūja day let us reaffirm before the lotus feet of our spiritual master our full commitment to his divine mission without reluctance or petty in-fighting. And what is the nature of that mission? Simply this: to flood the world with the sweet nectar of Krsna-prema the highest and purest love of Godhead now available to all within the ever-fresh pages of Sri Srimad-Bhagavatam and within the most holy maha-mantra, Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare /Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare. By the uncompromising order of his own Guru Maharaja, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, our worshipable master has dedicated his precious life to this wonderful cause.

It is Srila Prabhupada alone who is enthusing the whole world for chanting the holy name of Krsna. It is Srila Prabhupada alone who has dared to denounce the venomous propounders of impersonal and atheistic philosophies, now posing as respectable clergymen, educators and scientists, and force them to stand exposed at last before the astonished eyes of the world as the real arch-enemies of progressive human civilization. It is he alone who has accepted for himself untold trouble and very real pain just to purify us and free us from all evil affinities and the reactions to our black-heart deeds. And all the while he heaps the glory upon us, saying: "I consider you all as the representatives of my Guru Maharaja, now playing as my affectionate disciples." It is he alone, our dear Srila Prabhupada, who has filled up our near-deaf ear holes with the most relishable sweet nectar of Srimad-Bhagavatam and Caitanya-caritamrta, and who has single-handedly given us the means to place these transcendental literatures into the unsuspecting hands of housewives, truck drivers, hippies, students, merchants, service men, scientists, and even tribesmen all over this most fortunate planet. It is Srila Prabhupada alone who possess the insight to see that the great glorious days of Sri Krsna sahkirtana are now almost upon us and has ordered us off to Mayapura to learn the art of making thousands of mrdahga drums-enough for every single town and village. It is our dearmost Srila Prabhupada who has given us bead-bags filled with Tulasi beads, i.e. the means to remember the lotus-eyed Lord twenty four hours a day. It is Srila Prabhupada alone who is our very life and soul, upon whom our thoughts dwell, our eyes and ears are focused and our only hope rests. My dear masters, let us bow down our heads in the dust at his lotus feet. All Glories to Srila Prabhupada!

Your humble servants at Cleveland ISKCON