Portland

Our dearest Srila Prabhupada,

On this most holy day of your divine appearance, we, of New Manipura, do beg to fall down in the dust of your lotus feet, along with all our Godbrothers from around the world, and offer our crippled and depraved selves in service to the sahkirtana movement of Lord Caitanya. In the revealed scriptures it is declared that the spiritual master is to be worshiped as God because he is the most confidential servant of God. Therefore, we should write sixty volumes of glorification of you, Srila Prabhupada, and we could easily do it, since your glories are limitless, but we are simply praying that you will accept these few lines which are like offering a match to the sun.

In the Bhagavad-gita it is said, "Out of many thousands of men one will endeavor for perfection, and out of those who have achieved perfection, only one may know Me in truth." Only in our wildest dreams could we have ever thought that we would get one of those very rare souls as our spiritual master. We had no qualification to approach such a rare soul, being addicted to meat-eating, illicit sex, gambling and drugs. We thought ourselves happy in such a degraded condition and we were marching off to hell.

While others were content to sit and chant, only you were moved by the compassion characteristic of the real Vaisnava, the person who really knows Krsna in truth. Simply by making a humble effort to serve the lotus feet of your divine master you have relieved us from chewing the chewed again and again. It was actually the desire of Lord Caitanya that anyone who takes his birth in India should spread the sahkirtana movement throughout the world, but again, Srila Prabhupada, only you, as a true vaisnava, servant of the Lord, have submitted humbly to the Lord's orders. In the Bhagavad-gita Lord Krsna says that there is no servant dearer to him than the one who teaches the message of the Bhagavad-gita. Only you, Srila Prabhupada, had the determination to become most dear to Krsna; only you had the courage to leave the holy dhama and set foot to the grizzly Kali-yuga hill of America, just to rescue a few rotten conditioned souls-our lowly selves.

Even if we had millions of births it would not be possible to repay you, Srila Prabhupada, for your compassion, determination, courage and mercy. You released us from the muck of sense gratification into the cool, refreshing waters of satisfying the Lord. We are simply praying that somehow or other you engage us in assisting you in your holy mission of saving the world from hell, and we pray that whatever awkward and meager service we do will be accepted by you. Only in this way can we advance, for all the great authorities have confirmed that only by satisfying the spiritual master can one get the mercy of Krsna.

Oh, Srila Prabhupada, rolling in the dust of your feet we beg for your mercy.

Your lowly servants in New Manipura