Nairobi

Dear very merciful Srila Prabhupada,

We long to glorify you as you deserve, at all times and especially on this most blessed occasion of Sri Vyasa-pūja. Please be patient and accept the dumb feeling of gratitude with which we offer homage, and not the halting illiterate expressions. When Dhruva Maharaja desired to glorify the Supreme Lord but lacked the words to do so, the Lord kindly touched his forehead with His conch, and Dhruva was able to offer nice prayers. Alas, in our abominable, godless culture we have no one to instruct us how to approach you, except you yourself. Please look kindly upon our endeavor. What little we can say and do is by your grace only.

We were born in the darkest ignorance, and you, our beloved Gurudeva, are opening our eyes with the torchlight of knowledge. We offer our respectful obeisances unto you. We are in such ignorance that we cannot tell light from darkness. Without your constant guidance, we are unable to perceive the danger of our position, hopelessly, helplessly attached as we are to our vain efforts to lord it over the inexorable, insurmountable material energy. We read that:

Even knowing this, we are quite unqualified to approach you, to glorify you, or to offer any service to you.

You have written that "the expert spiritual master knows well how to engage his disciples' energy in the transcendental loving service of the Lord, and thus he engages a devotee on a specific devotional service according to his special tendency." Your supremely distinguished spiritual master, Om Visnupada Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Gosvami Maharaja, regarded anyone as fallen who was not chanting sixty-four rounds a day. It is your supreme mercy on fallen wretches like ourselves that, pitying our lack of attachment to chanting, you accept us al your disciples if we chant only sixteen rounds a day. You have so kindly devised a limitless range of transcendental activity to engage our propensities and our slight attachment to devotional service.

"By practicing this regulated devotional service under the direction of the spiritual master, certainly one awakens his dormant love of Godhead." The miracle is that, deeply embedded though we are in sinful activities, speech and thought, we are actually becoming purified by the process of devotional service which you have given us. (Cc. Adi 7.142)

How can we enumerate the joys of this real spiritual life, which is your gift to us? Deity worship, offering aratrika, preaching, distribution, cooking for Radha and Krsna, dancing and chanting jubilantly with mrdahga and karatalas-these and so many other activities are deeply enlivening us, and drawing is from the pursuit of dangerous, so-called pleasure within the jurisdiction of maya. By following this natural, enjoyable process we are actually becoming transcendentalists, actually realizing that we are not these material bodies but that we are spirit souls with an eternal relationship with Krsna. You are really giving us Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, as master, friend, even as our child or as our beloved.

Krsna sits under the trees in Vamsivata, attracting the hearts of the gopis with His flute. The vibration of that transcendental flute, entering the ears of Lord Brahma, the creator of the material universe, was expressed by him as the kama-gayatri. This Gayatri mantra has been passed from master to disciple in the parampara, and now you, the outward manifestation of Krsna within our hearts, are initiating us with it, and attracting us back to Krsna, the transcendental Cupid, inviting us to take part in His eternal blissful pastimes in the spiritual sky.

In the midst of the holocaust of this materialistic life, we are beginning to have some realization of eternal life full of variegated blissful activity. This is your miracle, that you are pulling yavanas and mlecchas off the streets and showing them the way to attain the topmost transcendental platform of pure love of God.

"The real import of the scriptures is revealed to one who has unflinching faith in both the Supreme Personality of Godhead and the spiritual master." In Caitanya-caritamrta it is stated that real faith is the complete conviction that simply by serving the Supreme Lord Sri Krsna one can attain all perfection. Serving you is as good as serving Krsna: yasya prasadad bhagavat-prasadha. By satisfying you, Krsna is also satisfied. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Gosvami Maharaja has stated that, "One can become perfectly successful in the mission of his life if he acts exactly according to the words he hears from his spiritual master." Because we are lacking in this faith, we are constantly in illusion that we can improve your sublime instructions and thus the potency of your mission to benedict the entire world with Krsna consciousness is impaired.

We do not find the strength to carry on alone with this hari-nama sahkirtana. Please bless us by giving us just one drop of faith with which to obtain the great treasure of the holy name of Krsna.

Our respectful obeisances are unto you, the devoted servant of Sarasvati Gosvami, who are preaching the message of Lord Caitanya. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu is Krsna Himself, descending in the mood of Srimati Radharani to teach us perfect devotion and love for Krsna. He was so much attached to his spiritual master that he collected earth from his birthsite and ate a little of it every day. He was a Vedantist (vedanta-krd veda-vid eva caham: By the Vedas I am to be known; indeed, I am the compiler of Vedanta, and I am the knower of the Vedas.") and yet when His spiritual master called Him a fool, unqualified to study Vedanta philosophy, and instructed Him to chant the holy name of Krsna at all times, he humbly followed these simple instructions.

"I firmly believe in these words of my spiritual master, and therefore I always chant the holy name of the Lord, alone and in the association of devotees." (Cc. Adi 7.95)

Here in Kenya, where programs such as large-scale book distribution are hardly practicable, the instructions which you have kindly given us are simply those with which Sri Īsvara Puri benedicted his beloved disciple Sri Krsna Caitanya dasa brahmacari

"My dear child, continue dancing, chanting and performing sahkirtana in the association of devotees. Furthermore, go out and preach the value of chanting krsna-nama, for by this process you will be able to deliver all fallen souls." As a result of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu's faithful adherence to the instructions of His spiritual master "the food of love of Godhead swelled in all directions, and thus young men, old men, women and children were all immersed in that inundation." (Cc. Adi 7.92)

We are also drowning in the sweet ocean of your mercy. During your last glorious memorable visit to Nairobi you instructed us how to preach carefully and humbly. You told us who we should approach people of all sorts "with a straw in our mouths," and how to flatter them wisely. You said we should invite them humbly to throw away all the nonsense they have learned and to follow the instructions of Lord Caitanya "Just chant Hare Krsna." We laughed with delight and you were also laughing, as you described how even "first-class loafers and rascals could become interested in Krsna consciousness and take up chanting if we preach like this." You instructed us that we should have "four-hour kirtanas and distribute sumptuous prasada."

We are very much desirous that this flood of krsna-prema, ecstatic love or Krsna, sweep over the whole continent of Africa. We want to see thousands of fallen conditioned souls experiencing the transcendental pleasure of sri harinama-sahkirtana-prasadananda, the real bliss of chanting and dancing for Krsna, and taking the sacred remnants of His foodstuffs.

Dear Srila Prabhupada, we humbly pray that you will forgive all our offenses, we have no seriousness to satisfy you and to fulfill your desires. Still we beg that you will continue to shower us with your mercy so that we can have the faith, enthusiasm and determination to carry on with this mission. Please bless us so that we can have drḍha-vrata-determined faith and srota-vakya, acceptance of your words, so that we can carry out your instructions without deviation. In this way the chanting and dancing will go on nicely, the people of Africa will be benefited and we will become purified, and by your grace make advancement in devotional service.

Praying that Lord Krsna will bless Your Divine Grace with long life and good spirits to carry on with your wonderful translations and purports to the transcendental Vaisnava literatures, and with this great work of benedicting the entire world with Krsna consciousness, we humbly offer our prostrate danḍavats at your most holy lotus feet.

Brahmananda Svami, GBC