Seattle

Srila Prabhupada, devotees like your good self are verily holy places personified. Because you carry the Personality of Godhead within your heart, you turn all places into places of pilgrimage. (Bhag. 1.13.10)

In meditation on this verse as we left Mayapur and Vrndavana to return to our service in other parts of the world we are appreciating the value of this pilgrimage. To go to some holy place of pilgrimage does not mean only to take a bath in the Ganges or Yamuna or to visit the temples situated in those places. One must seek out and take advantage of the pure devotees who reside at such places. The holy places are meant of purifying the polluted consciousness of the human being by an atmosphere surcharged with the presence of the Lord's unalloyed devotees. The personality of Godhead is always with such pure devotees because of their unalloyed service, which is without any tinge of fruitive action. The Personality of Godhead is omnipresent by His diverse potencies everywhere within space, but the Lord's omnipresence is perceived and manifested by His unalloyed devotees like you, Srila Prabhupada, just as electricity is manifested in an electric bulb. Therefore, Srila Prabhupada, we feel that it has been by your mercy and for your mercy only that there has been any value to this annual pilgrimage.

Not only are the holy places worthy of the name only on account of the pure devotees residing there, but also actions of the pure devotees can render any place into a place of pilgrimage. Such pure devotees are able to rectify the polluted atmosphere of any place rendered unholy by the questionable actions of interested persons who try to adopt a professional life at the cost of the reputation of the holy place.

Srila Prabhupada, you were comfortably situated in your rooms at Sri Sri Radha-Damodara temple, but you chose to leave to fulfill the order of your spiritual master and preach the message of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Yet in your leaving, you took Vrndavana with you-within your heart and within the pure chanting of the holy names of the Lord. Therefore, by your leaving and crisscrossing this entire planet, millions, nay, unlimited numbers of fallen conditioned souls are getting the opportunity to experience Vrndavana. This is your mercy, Srila Prabhupada!

There are two ways of association with the spiritual master-vapu and vani. Vapu means to be in his personal presence and vani means to associate with him through his teachings by following his instructions. Of those two vani is better. If a man is lost and confused in a dense forest and in such a hopeless condition he meets a woodsman who is familiar with the forest and knows its paths, then such a lost man simply has to take instructions and follow the directions of the woodsman and we will be freed from his fear and confusion. However, if out of false pride he rejects the instructions or even accepts them only partially, thinking himself to know better, then such a person is a fool! Therefore a devotee sees not with his eyes, but with his ears. Certainly, to see you, Srila Prabhupada, is very desirable, but what can we appreciate of your inconceivable pure love by our infected eyes? With our ears, though, we can hear your simple instructions as you gently encourage us along our path back to Godhead, out of this dense forest of delusion. Always your instructions ring with the urgency of not only becoming Krsna conscious ourselves but to preach Krsna consciousness to others. This is Lord Caitanya's movement!

Therefore it is with great eagerness and enthusiasm that we have returned to our service, surcharged by the atmosphere of Vrndavana and Mayapur, where the Lord's lila is enacted, and inspired by your association and instructions.

All glories to you, Srila Prabhupada!

Seattle devotees