San Diego

SAN DIEGO
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,
We beg to offer our prostrated obeisances time and time again at your lotus feet, for you have given us the eyes to see how the witch Maya reigns supreme over the conditioned souls in this world. How, by her spell, people take great delight inflicting one another with mental pain. How they are destroying their planet with poison and neglect. How they've squandered their vitality in sexual pursuits. How they're driven insane by envy and greed. How they're killing one another without regret. How they feast shamelessly on their brother's flesh.
Yes, how great we now see is the spell of this deluding witch, Maya. But how much greater, you've also shown, is the shade of your invincible lotus feet, for that shade has given us full shelter from the totality of all these barrages of illusion.
Yes, complete shelter. Never would any of us thought that possible, for it was misery and confusion that we had all finally established as the ultimate reality of this world. In ignorance, we had all grown up wanting to fulfill, at any cost, all of our ludicrous dreams, thinking that they would bring us unlimited satisfaction and joy. As children we'd daydream of this world being vacant of all its people except for "ME", with everything in it at "MY" disposal. As we "matured" we'd think of having an ideal relationship with the ideal bride and ideal family. Then, great fame and lordship over all. On and on our longings persisted. But even with some apparent successes, our minds were never pacified and our hearts were always pained.
Then you came, Srila Prabhupada, to force yourself upon us, to show us that it was actually your very self who is the very fulfillment of all those wild dreams and desires, those vast longings and distant hopes. You are the last dream we'd have though we wanted to come true. But you have now come to us and fulfilled all our aspirations for happiness simultaneously. No more do we dream of the future. No longer do we hover on the mental plan of wishful thinking. Now we realize that our fortune cannot be calculated by any material consideration. Now we see that we are more fortunate than untold numbers of living entities, because we've gained the association and service of the most confidential servant of the Supreme Lord. Therefore, now we cannot leave your feet, lest we again be trapped by the countless illusory conceptions of ultimate fulfillment.
Srila Prabhupada, we are yours; we cannot belong to anyone else, for you are our lord and master. All we know is what you've taught us. All we speak is what we have heard from you. All we do is what you've shown us. Therefore, we are considered alive only because you have made us alive. Without you we are dead men only, bereft of everything. Therefore, you are our life and soul, the life of our lives. Turning away from you, Srila Prabhupada, is walking directly into the hands of death.
 

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