Nairobi

NAIROBI
ei-bare karuna koro vaisnava gosai
patita-pavana toma vine keho nai
yahara nikate gele papo dūre yay
emona doyala prabhu keba kotha pay
gangara parasa hoile pascate pavan
darsane pavitra koro-ei tomara gun
hari-sthane aparadhe tare harinam
toma-sthane aparadhe nahi paritran
tomara hrdoye sada govinda-visram
govinda kohena-'mora vaisnava paran'
prati janme kori asa caranera dhuli
narottame koro doya apnara boli'
"O Vaisnava Gosvami, please be merciful to me this one time. You are the savior of the savior of the fallen; without you there is no one. Just by being in your presence sins go far away. Where can anyone find such kindness? Merely by the touch of the waters of the sacred Ganges one becomes liberated, even if he is the lowest of mankind; but just by seeing you, the same effect is achieved. Such is your quality. If one commits an offense at the feet of Lord Hari, he can be forgiven if he cants the holy name. But if one offends you, there is no salvation for him. In your heart Lord Govinda is always resting. Sri Govinda Himself says, 'I am the living force of my devotees.' I hope that in every birth I will obtain the dust of your lotus feet. Sri Narottama prays, 'Please, O Vaisnava Gosvami, be kind unto me."
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
Dear Srila Prabhupada,
You have come and appeared before us from the transcendental abode of the Lord. By your holy life, you have exhibited the perfection of pure love for Krsna. By your mercy you came to us, who were imbedded in the dark alleyways and cavelike rooms of maya's illusory prison of material enjoyment, and with the shining transcendental brilliance of your beautiful countenance you blessed us, the lowest among men, with your divine personal association-you, who are a direct associate of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Exhibiting your unlimited compassion, you came to us despite all difficulties and trying circumstances. Across thousands of miles of ocean, for months of discomfort, in pains of old age and disease, yet surpassing all obstacles by your love for Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati and all suffering jivas, you journeyed to us, stooping down to reach us who were helplessly struggling against the material energy as a rat fearfully squirms in the mouth of the powerful cat. Depending fully upon Krsna, you came alone, with no assistance from others. But you are the Lord's pure devotee, therefore you brought Vrndavana-dhama wherever your lotus feet traversed. To fulfill the prediction of Lord Caitanya, you personally took the task and save the most fallen before their sinful reactions took their toll by casting them into a fate of suffering and punishment inconceivable to the human mind. But it will be eternally declared that you saved the world in the time when the grips of impersonalism and voidism crushed the minds and hearts of all human society-even the holy land of Bharata-bhūmi.
In great meekness and humility, with voice ringing deep into our hearts with the sound of love and compassion, you came into our midst and allowed us to be with you-whose association is sought after even by the great demigods and rsis. Out of you mercy only, you walked with us, sat and talked to us, laughed with us and sang with us, ate krsna-prasada with us and danced and played musical instruments with us, rode in planes, buses, subways, automobiles, and trains with us. Always with you untinged motive and uninterrupted endeavors you purified us by you association, which was unceasingly and increasingly resplendent with unalloyed krsna-prema. O Srila Prabhupada, on your every breath there floated the crystal-clear descriptions of the spiritual world, enticing us to set our life's goal to attain that eternal realm, to which, once going, we would never have to return. By your transcendental voice you simply directly manifested Goloka Vrndavana filled with pure Krsna consciousness, the mood of the vraja-vasis, who eternally serve Krsna and know nothing but Krsna and the ever-increasing ecstasy of love for Krsna. By the unlimited river of nectar coming from your lotus lips, we could understand that there was no other thought than Krsna in your white moonlike mind, the abode of pure Krsna consciousness. By your unmotivated devotional activities, which were without cessation observed by all for years on end, twenty-four hours a day, we knew in great pride, ecstasy, and astonishment that in the heart of you, our divine Guru Maharaja, there was not other desire save and except the pure devotional service of your beloved Lordships Sri Sri Radha and Krsna. In the ocean of knowledge that emanated from you, there were perfect and unlimited instructions, descriptions, and examples of nothing other than pure devotional service to the Supreme Lord, Sri Nanda-nandana. You did not waste time or energy in describing anything but this pure essence of all Vedic knowledge.
There was no situation which you could not perfectly see as being controlled by Krsna and to be utilized as an opportunity to serve Krsna. You proved to all without a doubt that Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Therefore, by all authentic and apparent symptoms, it can be understood by anyone of truthful and honest mind that you are indeed a pure devotee of the Supreme Lord. To find such a personality as Your Divine Grace out of millions and millions of countless living entities within these manifested universes is indeed the most rare chance of incalculable good fortune. Therefore, we can only wonder how it has happened that somehow, by the unlimited causeless mercy of Krsna, obtained after wandering throughout practically numberless species of life, we have become so fortunate to come to Srila Prabhupada, to the termination of our journey of suffering in the river of this material world, by coming to the shores of your lotus feet. Let us place our tired souls in surrendered condition at your two beautiful lotus feet and bathe eternally in the cooling shade found there.
There is no other purpose for our existence remaining besides engaging wholeheartedly in the service of the Lord as endowed by you and guided by your all-encompassing instructions.
Your mission has been completed. You have undoubtedly fulfilled the prediction of Lord Caitanya which Your Divine Grace came simply to accomplish. Now we will witness the new era of Bhagavata-dharma ushered in by your divine appearance. The whole world has already been changed by you. The demoniac forces and atheistic asuras have already been defeated by you. Now a world of happiness and prosperity where there is one God, one book, and one religion is shortly to predominate. This is your gift. None of us could have ever imagine your and Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu's inconceivable plan to inundate this morbid world with divine love for God. But all along you were perfectly aware of the planned course of events conducted by Krsna's will, as you watched with unflinching faith the development of the branch of Lord Caitanya's tree, your International Society for Krsna Consciousness. You were always conscious of the course which this hari-nama-sahkirtana movement would take in its inundation of the whole world. By the desire of the Lord, His pure devotee knows everything and anything necessary to execute His loving service. Therefore, always astounded by your perfect knowledge of what to do in every situation, we simply watched you and followed your instructions blindly as you arranged everything in this International Society for Krsna consciousness in the most perfect manner, guiding us through all hardships and threats to our tender devotional creepers, reassuring us through all threats of maya and her agents, setting up the ideal society where all men from all conditions of life can achieve perfection, and thus guiding this transcendental safari on its sure course back to Godhead, despite the barking of the dogs.
O Srila Prabhupada, O perfect master, O perfect acarya, please give us the strength to carry on this hari-nama sahkirtana movement. Let us be as you are, eternally without any other aspirations or motives. Now you have placed your whole mission-the mission of the acaryas in our hands. But we cannot do anything as independent actors. Actually your mercy has made us everything we are, and by your mercy alone we will continue on our sojourn to perfection. We are simply your instruments. Let us dance in perfect step to the unlimited spiritual music broadcast from beyond time and space in your transcendental books.
Now, by your command, each and every one of your disciples must take up the same mood of compassion, sacrificing everything for you, our divine Gurudeva, as you did for your beloved Gurudeva, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Gosvami, and we must become gurus. It was quite inconceivable to us-your intention that we all become gurus-but you perfectly understood the desire of the Six Gosvamis headed by Srila Rūpa Gosvamis, and the instructions of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. But now we can understand how the world will be inundated by Lord Caitanya's movement-as you have quoted to us, reiterating the instruction again and again:
yare dekha, tare kaha 'krsna'-upadesa
amara ajnaya guru hana tara' ei desa
"By my order you become a guru, and save this land by telling whoever you see and whoever you meet the instructions of Krsna. (Cc. Madhya 7.128)
Yes, you wanted no one guru, or two or ten or twenty gurus, but thousands and millions of gurus, and by your efforts alone (and nobody else will ever be able to claim the credit entitled to Your Divine Grace) you have begun singlehandedly an enormous branch of siksa-gurus and diksa-gurus; and now it will only increase more and more until there are millions of Vaisnavas in every part of the globe. This you said at the Gaura-pūrnima festival in 1975 in Sridhama Mayapur: "Now we have one thousand-so increase this number to ten thousand, then to one hundred thousand, then to one million, then to ten million." To this transcendental statement of yours there rose a tumultuous roar of cheering, "Jaya Prabhupada! Jaya Prabhupada! Hari bol!!" filling the entire universe and being witnessed by all of the demigods. Therefore, from the Bhaktivedanta branch of Lord Caitanya's tree there will be millions of Vaisnava.
Let us not forget for a moment the gravity with which you guided this movement, the serious and always ecstatically joyful mood in which you traveled to all parts of the globe preaching Lord Caitanya's message. Let us also travel everywhere as you did to preach this message and deliver all of the suffering living entities, forgetting our own comfort. Let us take strength from the words of Bhaktivinoda Thakura in our effort to take up this mood of preaching exhibited by Your Divine Grace.
kabe jive doya, hoibe udoya,
nija-sukha bhuli' sudina-hrdoya
bhakativinoda, koriya vinoya,
sri-ajna-tahala koribe pracar
"When, O when will that day be mine when compassion for all jivas will manifest in my heart, and with a free heart, forgetting my own comfort, this Bhaktivinoda will set out to preach the divine command?"
Srila Prabhupada, we have sold ourselves to you as the animal is sold out to its master. Now we have no other duty than to follow your instructions. Our duty is an eternal endeavor to fulfill and unrepayable debt to you. Therefore we should do as you have told us may times, to work cooperatively, cultivating love and trust between all Godbrothers, and thus spread the mission of sri-hari-nama-sahkirtana to destroy all of the demoniac forces of the Kali-yuga. You are eternally watching over us as our loving spiritual father. Therefore, we have nothing to fear. Under the watchful protection of all the Vaisnava acaryas and the Lord, in the footsteps of your divine lotus feet, we will follow your infallible pathway back to Goloka Vrindavan and there live eternally with you and your beloved Lord Krsna.
naivopayanty apacitim kavayas tavesa
brahmayusapi krtam rḍdha-mudaḥ smarantaḥ
yo 'ntar bahis tanu-bhrtam asubham vidhunvann
acarya-caitya-vapusa sva-gatim vyanakti
"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 embodies living entities by directing them how to come to You." (Bhag. 11.29.6)
O Srila Prabhupada, please accept our millions upon millions of danḍavats at your lotus feet.
Brahmananda Svami / Ajamila dasa brahmacari / Urukrama dasa brahmacari / Daka dasa brahmacari / Sanatana dasa brahmacari / Rasamanḍala dasa brahmacari / Varadhanya dasa brahmacari / Sarvajit dasa brahmacari / Kesidamana dasa brahmacari / Marutpati dasa brahmacari / Bhuvanesvara dasa brahmacari / Rasa-lila-devi dasi / Radhika-devi dasi / Bhakta Charles / Bhakta John / Bhakta David Paul Gitarayan / Bhakta Alred Malandra / Bhakta Fred Kamau / Bhakta Mina Moy / Bhakta Hussain Ali / Bhakta Samjaya Parmar / Bhakta Ajaya Parmar
 

Link to this page: https://prabhupadabooks.com/svp/vyasa-puja-homages/nairobi/nairobi-3