New Vṛndāvana

"Our Spiritual Master is the Ocean of Mercy, the friend of the poor, the Lord and Master of the devotees. Oh Master, be merciful unto me. Give me the shade of Your Lotus Feet. Your fame is spread all over the three worlds."

Dear Srila Prabhupada,

No one can estimate the extent of your mercy. The spiritual master is the incarnation of Krsna's mercy and Krsna Himself cannot measure His own potency since it is always increasing. Your kindness upon us is always increasing, for you turn no one away. Accepting nothing for yourself, you are always striving in so many ways to entice and inspire, somehow awaken our desire to give more to Krsna.

It is said that the test of a great mind is to be able to hold two opposing ideas which are generally taken to be opposite: idealism and practicality. You are distributing, by the grace of Lord Caitanya, the supremely pure gift of love of God. In your books you have intricately described the symptoms of the pure devotees blessed with such love. All this is far beyond our experience. Yet, you do not leave us to daydream or lament, speculate or concoct. But for each one of us you have left concrete instruction, minute for minute outlines for molding our lives.

We have all come without qualification. Still, you have engaged us, given us service. In the material world, they've run out of jobs. But there is no unemployment in ISKCON.

We were all born with no sense of duty. Lower than sudras, disrespecting everyone-we unbroken dogs, we could only make noise and fight. But you have given us responsibility, put trust in us. Now we have to try to repay you for your confidence.

Devoid of all good qualities, we approached you for the wrong reasons. But you have given us the right means of approach. So we must become humble.

Ignorant of the goal of life, we searched in darkness. Out of compassion, you told us of Krsna. We must utilize this knowledge. By right, you are the proprietor of our lives, though we still try to cheat you. Our way of life, our goal, our happiness-our families, friends and means of sustenance-our work, enjoyment, philosophy and satisfaction, these are all gifts from you. There is nothing left from our old lives except for bad habits. You have purchased us thoroughly.

So here we are assembled, a clan of your disciples, ignorant and irresponsible, untrained and devoid of all saintly qualities-and you have told us to build Vrndavana. Who can we approach for help? Again we must address our prayers to you. Please open our ears and soften our hard hearts. Your instructions are all here. From your books and example, by the order of your representative we can know how to serve you.

But we are all hopelessly addicted to maya. Even when trying we cannot surrender. Always subject to illusion, we causelessly neglect your wishes although no one could be so kind as yourself. Still, you have ordered us to become devotees, and that is our hope. As a touchstone changes all to gold, you have the power to purify even us. Our faith is in you-we have only to listen and to live as you tell us to.

The Inmates of New Vrndavana